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MEMOIR 



OF THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



REV. JOHN STEVENS, 



WHO DIED IN BIDDEFORD, MAINE, APRIL 5, 1878, 
IN THE 77TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. 



WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 



11 He being dead yet speaJceth.' 



DOVEr/n. H.: 

MORNING STAR JOB PRINTING HOUSE. 

1878. 



.S75 ^3 



PREFACE. 



The true and more noble benefactors of man are not 
always those who have wasted their energies in heroic 
deeds on the battle-field, vanquished armies, slain their 
thousands and saturated the earth with blood \ nor the 
brave sons of the ocean who, to gain renown, have per- 
iled their lives to make new discoveries, even into the ice- 
bound regions ; but the humble, self-sacrificing minister 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has devoted his life in fight- 
ing against " principalities and powers," "against wicked- 
ness in high places," that he might benefit the lost and 
redeem them to God. 

A man's life may be such that no splendid incidents 
shall attract the eye of the curious, and yet a habitual 
course of beneficent action shall secure him an imperish- 
able reputation. 

In preparing this little work for the press, no effort has 
been made at literary display ; and it should be considered 
that the author, in his day, had not the advantages of 
classical culture that* ministers have at the present time, 
consequently the reader should not view it with a critic's 
eye. 



IV. 

The many friends who desire to see in print the sketch- 
es from the pen of this worthy man of God, wish to retain 
the dictum of the author unchanged and without orna- 
ment that they may read him and not of him. 

It will not be strange if some inaccuracies are discov- 
ered, considering that brother Stevens was near seventy- 
five years of age when he wrote the sketches of his life, 
and that he wrote principally from memory. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The subject of this memoir was the fourth, 
child and second son of Theodore and Mary- 
Stevens, late of Limington, York County, Me., 
and was one of a family of three sons and 
eight daughters. My parents being of Quaker 
descent, my early training and religious im- 
pressions were that true prophecy and the aid 
of true light were to be found in attendance at 
those meetings founded and maintained by a 
few of the citizens of that place, who (as I 
believed then and have since) were a people 
of Christian principle, and in sympathy with 
what they thought to be for the best interests 
of people in general. Hence, my early relig- 
ious advantages were derived from the reading 
of their books, and attendance on their meet- 
ings, where silence was frequently broken by 
prayer and exhortation offered by the pious of 



6 MEMOIR OF 

both sexes. Frequently the traveling minis- 
ters held forth in public, and my young heart 
was often moved by their spirit-stirring appeals 
to a keen sense of the need of a higher life. 

In these seasons of awakening,! often prom- 
ised God to" break off my sins and live to him, 
but there was always one omnipresent idea, 
namely : If I was ever a Christian, I should 
have to preach the gospel. This had a tend- 
ency to induce delay in seeking my soul's sal- 
vation, for while I regarded it in the light of a 
most sublime calling, I also felt an instinctive 
shrinking from its responsibilities, and that it 
would be a final and utter veto upon all world- 
ly ambitions and schemes ; and my young and 
worldly heart rebelled at the thought of the 
poverty and trials necessarily connected with 
the life of a Christian minister. So, shrinking 
from the only path which seemed open to* me 
if I were to become a Christian, I grieved the 
Spirit, and plunged deeper into youthful follies 
and sins ; and, to make it all right in the esti- 
mation of my young associates, and show that 
I was one with them in the frivolities of youth- 
ful life, I would frequently, when they were 
gathered about me in youthful groups, preach 
them a sermon in mock solemnity, imitating, 
in tone and manner, some traveling minister 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 7 

who had been among us preaching Christ's 
gospel, that we might be saved. Oh, the 
depth of God's mercy in saving such a fallen 
sinner ! 

In this way I spent my early youth, until 
the seventeenth year of my age. One day it 
was announced in school that there would be a 
meeting at Mr. Samuel Joy's, attended by one 
Ichabod Churchill, that evening, and I was 
not long in coming to the conclusion that I 
would go and hear what the stranger had to 
say. I went. The speaker laid bare my in- 
ner life as a sinner, showed me my need of a 
Saviour, and presented Christ as the only one 
who could save me from sin here, and the sad 
consequences of sin hereafter. Such an ap- 
peal I thought I had never before heard, and 
it seemed to me then that it was my last call. 
Ere I was aware,I found myself upon my knees, 
pleading for that mercy which I had so long 
abused ; and although I felt that I had no just 
claim for the exercise of that mercy, yet the 
earnest and sincere plea of my poor sin-bur- 
dened soul seemed to prevail, and I found 
some relief before rising from my knees. The 
relief which I then received partook of a strong 
desire to know more of Him in whose death I 
then rejoiced, and to this end I felt that my 



8 MEMOIR OF 

whole being should be devoted. The revival 
interest increased, and a large number of my 
associates were subjects of the work. The 
leader of this revival, Mr. Churchill, was only 
a layman and member of Rev. John Buzzell's 
church in Parsonsfield, Me., and licensed by 
the church as an exhorter, and was very suc- 
cessful in his labors to save men from their 
sins. His principal success, however, was as 
a sharp-shooter at the front, rather than a skill- 
ful nurse for converts. His lack of ability to 
lead converts in the proper steps to a higher 
life was soon partially, if not wholly, made up 
in the labors of two young women, Miss Han- 
nah Hubbard, of North Limington, and Miss 
Elmira Westcott, of Gorham, Me. These 
young ladies were very skillful in their efforts 
to lead converts in the path of Christian duty, 
and were quite efficient workers in the Mas- 
ter's cause, and withal quite able in their 
Scripture expositions. Miss Hubbard subse- 
quently became the wife of James Fogg, son 
of Dea. Fogg, of Ossipee, N. H. Miss West- 
cott became the wife of Rev. Jeremiah Bul- 
lock, of Limington, and both . continued to 
preach and exhort with good acceptance and 
signal success for many years. We were also 
favored with the labors of Mr. Bullock, and 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 9 

his father, Rev. Christopher Bullock, whose 
labors in that section of country had been 
much blessed in promoting revival interests ; 
also Rev's Hobbs, of Waterborough ; Burbank, 
ofNewfield; Buzzell, of Parsonsfield ; White, 
of Standish ; Clay, of Buxton ; Jordan and 
Leach, of Raymond, and others whose praise 
were in the gospel of Christ, and whose light 
did much in dispelling the darkness of the sur- 
rounding night, and leading many to rejoice in 
a new-found life and experience, which gave 
them a hope like an anchor to the soul. 

My own experience was varied ; my evi- 
dence was at times bright and clear, at other 
times obscure and dark. I found much happi- 
ness in the discharge of duty, exhortation and 
prayer, and the love I had for Christians ab- 
sorbed my whole being for a time. The duty 
of baptism was much impressed upon my 
mind, and then beyond that it seemed to me I 
must devote my life to calling my fellow-men 
to turn from sin to God. 

From this I shrank, and for a time was 
much in the dark, but daily secret prayer 
and ofttirnes the performance of more public 
duties were never lost sight of; and in my 
young heart I ardently sought for a deeper 
work of grace, and a higher sense of Christian 



IO MEMOIR OF 

obligation. In this way I passed some two 
years, during which time I left my father's 
house and traveled into the eastern part of the 
State, in company with one of my associates, 
to see what we could do in the way of starting 
in life. Never had my heart been made to 
feel the strength of those cords that bound me 
to friends as it then did, Father, mother, 
brothers and sisters came up before me in a 
different light from what they had ever done 
before, especially my mother. Oh, how sad and 
painful it was to leave that dear mother,— how 
I regretted my boyhood delinquencies and acts 
that had caused her grief! The tears that be- 
dewed her sad face as we parted were treas- 
ured in my memory as so many stars that 
pointed me to the path of virtue and truth. 
Parental blessings pronounced, and a general 
leave-taking of brothers and sisters over, I and 
my associate were on our way, to seek, as 
we then said, our fortunes among strangers. 
I was in the nineteenth year of my age, and 
he was some two years my senior. With our 
packs upon our backs we traveled on foot to 
the town of Vassalborough, Me. I here con- 
cluded that I was as far east as I wished to go, 
about ninety miles from home ; and the home 
of my childhood never looked so precious to 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. II 

me as it did then. I accordingly let myself to 
work on a farm with a man belonging to the 
society of Friends, by the name of Joseph How- 
land, for one month, it being in the month of 
September, for the sum of nine dollars per 
month ; and if we both liked, I was to work six 
months longer for seven dollars per month. I 
found my employer a kind-hearted man, his 
family very attentive to my wants, and very 
strict religionists in their way, they all attend- 
ing the Friends' meeting, then held in the old 
meeting-house at what was called GetchelPs 
Corner. 

I finished my month's labor and all seemed 
to be satisfactory on his part, and the family 
appeared very anxious that I should stay 
through the winter, as my friend Howland had 
been selected by the society to travel with a 
preacher of their order by the name of James 
Warren, a highly esteemed man of their faith. 
My friend Howland laid before me his propo- 
sition, and wished me to take the care and 
responsibility of his home affairs till his return 
in the spring. This seemed to be a more respon- 
sible place than I felt competent to fill ; and then 
the wages were so low (only $7 per month) ; 
but I had become attached to the family, and 
to leave and go farther might be to fare worse, 



1 2 MEMOIR OF 

so I accepted the position, and in due time was 
left to care for the interests of my employer. 
A large stock on the farm and a hundred head 
of sheep a mile away to care for and feed 
every day, timber to haul to the mill, bark 
to the market and wood to the door, — in all 
this I managed to give what seemed to be en- 
tire satisfaction to my employer on his return. 
The household matters were managed by a 
daughter of my employer by the name of 
Phebe. She subsequently married a man by 
the name of Smilie, and to them was born a 
daughter who is now the celebrated Quaker- 
ess preacher. In toil, early and late, I passed 
the winter. My evenings were spent with the 
family, for I had come to feel that there was 
my home for the time being, and very much 
enjoyed the society of my young friends. 
Sometimes they would ask me to sing, and oc- 
casionally I would close the evening with 
prayer. Frequently I would go to meeting 
with the family ; and these opportunities, with 
daily secret prayer, kept the wolf of want from 
the door of my heart. Although I was not in 
the enjoyment of a full salvation, yet at times 
I could say with Job, " I know that my Re- 
deemer liveth." 

In this way I spent the winter, and my em- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 1 3 

ployer was so well satisfied on his return in 
the spring that he paid me nine dollars per 
month instead of seven, as had first been 
agreed upon. Having settled with my employ- 
er, he took me with his team to Augusta, fifteen 
miles, and I shouldered my pack and walked 
on foot to Limington and found all well, and 
glad to see the returning son and brother. I 
had expended a part of my earnings for some 
clothes, and the rest of my money (or the 
most of it) I gave to my father ; and the sat- 
isfaction I felt in meeting the wants of my pa- 
rents was far more than if I had spent the 
money for myself. 



CHAPTER II. 



It was during the toil of my daily business, 
while on the road between Getchell's Corner 
and the place where I worked, that I received 
a most convincing and what was to me a spe- 
cial call to preach the gospel. As I was trav- 
eling beside my team I was in prayer, and the 
cogitations of my mind turned upon the condi- 



14 MEMOIR OF 

tion of the church and the world, when the 
then active ministers of the gospel should die 
or be past their labors. There were Buzzell, 
Hobbs, Bullock, Burbank and others of my 
acquaintance, and beyond their activities I 
could see no ministerial light for the church or 
the world. My mind seemed intently fixed 
upon the dark picture, when all at once, as if 
a star shone out in the midst of the surround- 
ing night, this text of Scripture came to my 
mind, as if some one had spoken, " God is 
able, of these stones, to raise up children unto 
Abraham," Matt. 3:9. It applied to me. Al- 
though I was like a stone, hard, inactive and 
insensible to duty, yet God could make me a 
son, and, if faithful and obedient to the call of 
God, I should yet be made an instrument of 
good to the church and the world, and in some 
little measure fill the place of those men of 
God as they should pass from their activities, 
and the church and the world feel their loss. 

This exercise of mind served for a time to 
arouse me to a more feeling sense of obligation 
to God, and greater activity in religious duty. 
I longed for the time when I should be free 
from obligation to my employer, and I prom- 
ised God I would then be obedient to what 
seemed to me a heavenly vision. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 15 

From that day it was a settled conclusion in 
my own mind that to preach the gospel was 
my life-work, and when my obligations were 
ended with the family where I worked, that I 
would return to my father's house with a de- 
termination to do my whole duty and leave the 
event in the hands of Him who doeth all things 
well. I did return, and the old brethren and 
sisters in the church received me and my re- 
ligious efforts in the prayer and conference 
meetings gladly, and with thanksgiving to 
God, The Edgerlys, Tufts, Foss and the 
Mansons were then nursing fathers and moth- 
ers in Israel, and to these Christians, especial- 
ly to Deacon Samuel Edgerly, was I much in- 
debted for words and acts of comfort and 
cheer. 

For a time my resolution was to go forward 
in every duty. I was baptized by Rev. Jere- 
miah Bullock, who was then preaching in the 
place, and united with the Freewill Baptist 
church of Limington. And now the thought 
of devoting my life to the work of calling after 
sinners to turn to God again impressed my 
mind with great force, so that, asleep or 
awake, it was my most constant conviction. 
Soon I began to look at my unfitness. My 
educational advantages were only what I re- 



l6 MEMOIR OF 

ceived in the common schools. At that time 
there was no Bates College, no Hillsdale, not 
even Parsonsfield Academy ; and I said, Who 
am I that I should think of taking upon myself 
such responsibility? The field was large — al- 
ready white — the work delicate in its nature 
and mighty in its proportions. True, it prom- 
ised much in the future if I could be the means 
of saving souls, but in this life the prospect 
seemed dark and uninviting, for the ministers 
of my acquaintance pretended to no claim up- 
on the people for a living, and in most cases 
were dependent on the voluntary offerings of 
the churches for the support of themselves and 
families. I shrank from the sacrifice on the 
one hand and the want of ability on the other, 
and erring human nature attempted to strike a 
medium line which to me had the promise 
of worldly possessions, and the enjoyment of 
religion, too. This had all its brightness in 
theory, while its practical side was covered 
with thorns. 

In spite of my good resolutions I fell into 
darkness of mind, and although I struggled 
hard to keep from openly wounding the cause 
of Christ, yet I had to learn that the only way 
to keep from backsliding was to go forward 
in the performance of known duty. This I 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 17 

have since come to believe is, has been, and 
ever will be, true of all who theoretically or 
practically attempt to divide life between the 
world and religion. The keeping-power of 
God is with those who obey him in sincerity 
and truth. I found it difficult to make straight 
the paths of my feet while refusing to walk in 
the way that was so clearly my duty, and so 
relapsed into a dark state of mind and became 
worldly in my thoughts and aspirations. 

A few years passed in this state of mind, dur- 
ing which time I married and moved into the 
town of Sebago, then a wilderness, and set- 
tled with my young wife and one child upon 
a piece of wild land, in a log house. Although 
our situation was one of privation, as is gener- 
ally the case with settlers in a new country, 
we were happy in the possession of conjugal 
love, and for the time being enjoyed ourselves 
in our own little circle, and in our acquaint- 
ance with the neighbors, who were sparsely 
settled about us. To make a farm in the wil- 
derness, and place my family above want, was 
the aim of my life. I had an object for which 
to live, and to climb the hill was the ab- 
sorbing theme of my life. Affection for my 
family was intensified by their willingness to 
share with me in privation and toil. At times 



l8 MEMOIR OF 

my religious views were vivid before me, and 
at these seasons I would have family prayers, 
and other religious duties were attended to, 
and I strove hard to keep up the appearance, 
at least, of Christian life, both in my family 
and among my neighbors. Honesty in deal- 
ings and truthfulness of utterance were to me 
important beacon lights which I, as a profess- 
or of Christianity, should 'ever place before 
all with whom it was my lot to associate. In 
this I succeeded in some good degree, and I 
found it in after life greatly to the advantage 
of my success in my ministrations in public, and 
especially among my neighbors and youthful 
acquaintances. In this way I lived for about 
a year and a half, until my mind was wrought 
up to a point of utter hopelessness in a world- 
ly direction,, and the only path that seemed 
open to me was to throw myself into God's 
hand, to be molded into the vessel that should 
seem best in his 'sight. I became nearly unfit 
for the common business of life, and I would 
frequently forget the most common wants. I 
remember once I went to the other part of the 
settlement to obtain a gallon of molasses of a 
neighbor, borrowing a gallon measure of an- 
other neighbor, and promising to return it on 
my way home. I took it with me, forgot 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 19 

to leave it as I passed his house, and went 
some distance, when the thought occurred to 
me that I should have left it, and returned to 
leave it, setting down my molasses ; and when 
I came back and passed the spot where I left 
it, I was so bewildered that I could with diffi- 
culty tell where I had left it. Such was the 
state of my mind that my companion noticed 
that something was the matter with me, and 
would frequently inquire, "John, what ails 
you?" I at length confessed to her that I felt 
that I must preach the gospel, and our worldly 
prospects and ambitions were at an end. In 
this state of mind I promised God that if some 
minister would come into the settlement and 
hold a meeting, I would appoint another, and 
attend it myself. It was not long before a man 
by the name of Barker, a Methodist preach- 
er, visited us, and preached on the Sabbath. 
I listened to his sermon as well as I could, 
with this thought in my mind. Such was the 
nature and solemnity of that promise 1 did not 
dare to break it, and so at the close of the 
meeting I arose, and told the people that there 
would be a meeting there, in that school-house, 
the next Sabbath. The week passed and in 
mingling with m} T neighbors I would some- 
times hear the inquiry, "Who is going to 



20 MEMOIR OF 

preach next Sabbath? " " I guess John is go- 
ing to ; hope he will," &c. When the Sabbath 
came, nearly the entire community came out 
to see and hear the new preacher. The 
school-house was nearly full when I arrived. 
I went in, took the minister's stand and sur- 
veyed the congregation. Among them were 
two of my neighbors, O. Pike, Esq., and Wm. 
Haley, the blacksmith. These men loomed 
up before me like giants. I was on terms of 
intimacy with them in worldly matters, and 
they were leading men of business in the com- 
munity, and thought much of by the neigh- 
bors. Had they been out of the congregation, 
it would have been a great relief to me ; but 
here I was ; to go back was death — to go for- 
ward I could but die. The meeting opened 
by prayer, etc. I arose with the new Testa- 
ment in my hand and turned to the General 
Epistle of Jude, 3d verse, the latter part of 
which I dwelt upon more particularly — " That 
you should earnestly contend for the faith 
once delivered to the saints." This was my 
first effort. I stood before my neighbors and 
had named my first text ; what arrangement 
I had it has always been difficult for me to de- 
termine. I had not proceeded far before all 
fear of man was gone, and I ventured to look 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 21 

for Pike and Haley. These men, mountains 
as they had seemed to me, were bathed in 
tears, and I lost all fear of them. I was 
much assisted in speaking, and closed my first 
meeting with a feeling of great calmness and 
trust in God, and a fixed resolution to do my 
whole duty to God and my fellow-men. I was 
impressed at that time that Haley must be con- 
verted, and that feeling continued until it was 
accomplished some years after. I continued 
to hold meetings in the place on the Sabbath, 
and sometimes during the week, with good 
success, witnessing some revivals, and was 
refreshed and encouraged in my labors, till it 
was thought best for me to move back to my 
father's, in the south of Limington. This I 
did, and was gladly received by my old breth- 
ren of the church and the people in general. 
Here I continued to preach on the Sabbath in 
what .was then known as the South meeting- 
house and hold meetings on week days as 
often as I could under the circumstances, as I 
had to support my family by carrying on my 
father's farm on shares ; for he, being a mill- 
wright, was from home most of the time. Oc- 
casionally, family necessaries were handed in, 
and on the whole, with much activity and hard 
labor, I thought my wants well met. I con- 



22 MEMOIR OF 

tinued my labors in this way, working hard 
and preaching all I could in Limington, Lim- 
erick, Waterborough, and other places, until 
the spring of 1823, when a gracious outpour- 
ing of the Spirit was witnessed among the 
people. The meetings were thronged with 
anxious listeners, and I held meetings day and 
night in the surrounding neighborhoods. It 
was seed time literally and harvest time spir- 
itually. We were occasionally visited and as- 
sisted by Rev. J, Bullock and wife, a brother 
Buck, a Methodist local preacher, and brother 
B. S. Manson, one of my old school- 
mates, just commencing to preach, and who 
was with us in most of our meetings, and ren- 
dered good service. Matters moved smoothly 
on and it was a time of rejoicing with God's 
people. The converts began to feel that they 
must follow their Lord in baptism, and that I 
must baptize them. For a time this embar- 
rassed me, but the church thought best to call 
a council of ministers to consider the propriety 
of ordaining me to the work of the gospel min- 
istry. It consisted of Elders Burbank, Hobbs, 
Jordan, Bullock and Gray. After due deliber- 
ation, it was determined to ordain me, and a 
public meeting was held in the Old South, and 
the ordination proceeded in the following or- 



.REV. JOHN STEVENS. 23 

der : Introductory prayer by brother Gray ; 
sermon, by Samuel Burbank ; prayer at the 
laving on of hands, by Zechariah Jordan; 
charge, by Henry Hobbs, and hand of fellow- 
ship, by Jeremiah Bullock. This was in June 
1823, I being 22 years of age. At the close of 
this service I made an appointment for baptism. 
On the next day six. of the converts present- 
ed themselves, were accepted by the church, 
and I baptized them in the Little Ossipee river, 
near what was then called Edgecomb Bridge. 
The occasion was one of much anxiety to me, 
lest I should make some blunder, and bring 
a reproach upon the cause. But all passed off 
very pleasantly and satisfactorily to myself 
and others. I continued to have a baptism 
every week till I had baptized some 70 con- 
verts, and the work was spreading in different 
parts of the town, and towns adjoining. It 
was then a maxim with me to keep under the 
cloud. This seemed to lower over a number 
of places, and so my work was increased. I 
had to travel mostly on foot, being too poor to 
own a team, but was often assisted by friends 
who did own one. At this time I had for a 
finality entered the course and felt determined 
to win the race, let the consequences turn as 
they might. My whole soul was absorbed in 



24 MEMOIR OF 

the thought of winning souls to Christ, and to 
this thought every ambition had to bend, 

I had a pair of small cattle which I very 
much needed on the farm, but I exchanged 
them for a horse ; and as I more and more cut 
loose from worldly engagements and devoted 
my time to the preaching of the gospel, the 
people seemed to feel more in duty bound to 
look after my temporal wants ; so much so 
that I seldom found a place of want which was 
not soon met. As before stated, my education 
was very limited, my w r ardrobe of a coarse 
texture, my library small, consisting of a 
Bible and hymn book. These, for a time, 
were all the books that I owned ; but I bought 
when I could, borrowed when I could not buy, 
and read and studied when others slept. The 
Bible and biblical books were my guiding 
stars, and the Spirit of God my compass. 
Head winds and tempests would sometimes 
veer my course, but my faith in God and in 
his Son Jesus Christ, did not fail me. If it 
was necessary to come to an anchor, hope was 
that anchor, and I would outride the storms. 
In this way I spent some more than five years 
as an evangelist, preaching and witnessing the 
outpouring of the Divine Spirit, and a glorious 
ingathering of souls. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 25 



CHAPTER III. 



Among the incidents of traveling are the 
following : A call came to the Quarterly 
Meeting (the Parsonsfield, then including 
what is now the Parsonsfield and York Co. 
Quarterly Meetings) , through Elder John Buz- 
zell, from an unconverted man, in what was 
then called Lower Canada, for the Freewill 
Baptists in the States to send some ministers 
to the Province to preach to the people, This 
letter, addressed to Elder Buzzell, represented 
the country as being well nigh destitute of 
evangelical preaching, and the field large and 
white for the harvest, The letter was brought 
into the Q^ M. and read. This stirred the in- 
most feelings in all of our hearts, and when 
brother Buzzell made an appeal for volunteers, 
I felt constrained to offer my services, and 
brother B, S, Manson, the young man who 
had labored with me in the reformation in 
Limington, also volunteered to accompany me. 
This w r as to me very acceptable, inasmuch as 
he had once been there in company with Eld, 
Samuel Burbank, in answer to the same re- 
quest. He was also an old schcol-mate and 



26 MEMOIR OF 

companion in sin, — converted about the time I 
was, — had commenced to preach about the 
same time I did, having had the advantages of 
an academical education, which I had not. 
We loved each other as brothers, and until 
this day it is always joyous for us to meet. 
God bless brother Manson, is the indwelling 
sentiment of my heart, and the truthful utter- 
ance of my voice. 

A vote of approbation was unanimously 
adopted by the Q^ M,, and a contribution of 
seven dollars taken, to be divided between us 
to defray our expenses on a journey of 300 
miles. At the present time this would seem a 
small sum to most ministers, but to us, as we 
went by ourselves, it seemed quife sufficient. 
We returned to our homes in joyfulness of 
heart, and soon made preparations for our 
journey. My horse being insufficient, that 
same William Haley before mentioned, al- 
though yet unconverted, offered to exchange 
with me, he having a nice young animal, and 
a very smooth traveler. We started on our 
journey in company with brother Mark Hill, 
of Buxton, Me., and Elder Jonathan Wood- 
man of Freedom, N. H., passed through the 
Notch of the White Mountains, and crossed the 
Connecticut river at Lyndon, Vt., preaching 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 27 

and praying as we went. As we sat on our 
horses, while paying our toll over the bridge, 
some one of us called brother Woodman by 
name. The toll-keeper inquired if it was Eld. 
Jonathan Woodman. Being told that it was, 
he said his orders from the proprietors were to 
let Elder Woodman pass toll free. This he 
did, and the rest of us, paying toll, went on our 
way rejoicing. We attended a session of the 
Wheelock Q^M., then held at London, and 
brother Woodman preached one of his stirring 
sermons. I also attempted to preach from the 
text, " Thou wilt show me the path of life/'. 
&c. I did not enjoy my usual liberty, and for 
a time felt quite gloomy and in doubt about 
being in the way of duty. This, however, 
soon passed away, and I felt my usual trust in 
God, and a resolution to spend life in his serv- 
ice. This was the town in which Elder Dan- 
iel Quimby lived and preached ; w r e also went 
to Sutton. The meeting-house was built by 
Elder John Colby, of which I had read in* his 
journal. This was quite interesting to me, as 
I had read of this self-sacrificing man of God, 
and I said, oh, that I may be permitted to do 
and suffer, if need be, for the cause, Here 
we left Elder Woodman and brother Hill, and 
Bro. M. and myself,taking a northerly course, 



28 MEMOIR OF 

entered Canada by the way of Stanstead, and 
put up at a brother Moulton's, father of the 
Revs. Alial and A. K. Moulton, they being 
then but boys in the circle of the family. 
Since then they have become able ministers of 
the New Testament, and ornaments to the 
church. Refreshed by our rest, and with 
much good advice and counsel from our aged 
brother M,, we started on our way around the 
shore of Memphremagog lake to the town of 
Bolton, where the man lived who first wrote to 
Elder Buzzell for help from the Freewill Bap- 
tists in the States. We were cordially received 
and entertained by him and his family. The 
revival that commenced on brothers Burbank 
and Manson's first visit, seemed to commence 
anew, and our meetings were thronged with 
anxious listeners. People traveled on foot, from 
three to six miles, to hear what they called the 
Yankee Priests ; many were awakened, and 
many hopefully converted to God. The man 
Austin, who wrote the request for help, and a 
number of his family were among the con- 
verts. This was a matter of great rejoicing 
with us and them. A son of this family, Ray- 
mond Austin, afterward, as I have been in- 
formed, became a successful minister of Christ. 
We visited from house to house, having relig- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 29 

ious conversation and prayer in every house, 
taking turns in prayer, brother Manson in one 
house and I in the next, and so on. Some of 
these seasons were very impressive and sol- 
emn, — in others, circumstances would trans- 
pire that were to us new and grotesque. 
When we prayed, all the family would kneel, 
men, women and children. At one of these 
calls, when it was my turn to pray, all knelt, 
and among them a boy, ten or twelve years 
of age, also knelt near the bed in the room. 
At that time, when deeply engaged, I was ac- 
customed to raise my voice to a high pitch, 
and when it struck the higher note, brother 
Manson, with one eye open, saw the boy 
start, and looking at me with evident fright, 
sprang under the bed and kept very still till 
we left. This afforded matter for a hearty 
laugh, in which, notwithstanding the solemn 
interests of the day, I was compelled to join. 
At another time it was my lot to pray where 
the mother of the family had recently buried a 
little child, and, in praying for the mother, I 
prayed that she might be prepared to meet the 
darling child in heaven. Our next meeting 
was some five miles from this house, but that 
mother was present. She pressed through the 
company, and holding my hand in an unusual 



30 MEMOIR OF 

grasp, she expressed great satisfaction in the 
prayer I had made at her house, inasmuch as 
she had come to believe that her child was 
happy in heaven. Before that she had been 
under the gloomy apprehension that the child 
was lost, because it had not been sprinkled, 
I said, when learning the whole circumstances, 
oh, when will the divines of the Established 
Church learn enough of divinity to see that 
Christ came to save the world, and that he did 
his errand there can be no doubt, and in an 
infantile state the race was brought again into 
harmony with God ; and thus it is a truth that 
" God sent not his Son into the world to con- 
demn the world, but that the world through 
him might be saved." This text shows con- 
clusively the -mission for which Christ came. 
His utterance on the cross, " It is finished," 
shows conclusively that He did do the work 
He came to do, — salvation for the whole world 
in an infantile state, and repentance and re- 
mission for all adults. Hence the command, 
that repentance and remission might be 
preached in all the world, beginning at Jerusa- 
lem, — yes, begin at Jerusalem, — the Sanhe- 
drim is there, — the Roman soldiers are there, 
— my murderers are there,— r begin where I fin- 
ished. The apostolic work was to carry the 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 3 1 

news of salvation through Christ to all the 
world. To infants as a fact, to all adult sin- 
ners as a possibility, through repentance and 
remission of sin. This is the doctrine I have 
long since believed and preached, viz,, that 
the world was redeemed by the atonement, 
and sinners are condemned only for actual 
transgression, — repentance and faith in Christ 
being indispensable to salvation. 

We spent several days iti Bolton and vicini- 
ty, visiting from house to house, and holding 
meetings nearly every day, witnessing much 
of the Divine influence, and the hopeful con- 
version of a goodly number of precious souls. 
From here we went back to Stanstead, then 
down the St. Frances river to Ascott and 
Compton, and held some meetings with indi- 
cations of divine power. Here it seemed nec- 
essary that we should part. Brother Manson 
to stop there a few days, and then to return to 
Bolton ; and I to go through what was then 
called " the long woods," to reach the upper 
settlements on the Connecticut river, twenty 
miles, with but one house in all that distance, 
My horse had thrown off one of his shoes, and 
the blacksmith, being of the Established 
Church, and too conscientious in his own 
creed, or too prejudiced against us who did 



32 MEMOIR OF 

not believe in Apostolical Succession, refused 
to set the shoe. The boy came back and told 
me that the smith refused to put on the shoe 
for a Yankee priest, and finding some nails, I 
did the work as best I could, there being no 
other blacksmith within ten miles, and about 
eleven o'clock was ready to take the dreary 
ride of twenty miles, by a single path bushed 
out and marked by spotted trees. This was a 
lonesome ride, and, worse than my solitude, I 
had unwelcome visitors. When half through 
the woods, as I was eating a lunch taken with 
me, and standing beside my horse, feeding on 
some grass by the wayside, three wolves en- 
tered my path a few rods before me, with evi- 
dent designs of attack, I picked up a club 
and showed fight, for I thought the occasion 
not only allowed but demanded it. The 
wolves, though hungry, seemed cautious, and 
dared not come within reach of my club, and 
soon retreated, w r hen I immediately bitted my 
horse, was quick in the saddle, and left my 
unwelcome visitors to find their dinner else- 
where. Just at twilight I reached the settle- 
ment on the New Hampshire line, and found 
a home in the family of a brother Ingalls, 
spent the Sabbath in Colebrook, and spoke to 
the people in a barn. Stopping a few days, 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 33 

and witnessing some outpouring of the Spirit 
in the salvation of souls, I passed on, taking 
the road that led through Shelbourne, Bethel, 
Paris, Bridgton, Sebago, Baldwin, &c, ; reach- 
ed home and found my family and friends 
well, for which I was truly thankful to God. 



CHAPTER IV. 



I continued my labors with the church of S* 
Limington, visiting and preaching with other 
churches, and in places where there was no 
church, some five years, witnessing many pre- 
cious reformations, from which were raised a 
number of ministers of Christ ; and with these 
re-info r cements, and the help of those faithful 
brethren, such as Joseph Edgcomb, Nahum 
Foss and Carlton Small, now living, but most- 
ly past labor, I was much encouraged, and 
the work went bravely on. 

Some incidents worthy of note transpired 
during this time. A glorious revival was in 
progress in the North of Limington, w T here it 
was my lot to labor almost the entire summer. 



34 MEMOIR OF 

This took me from home most of the time, 
and I often returned to my family in the south 
part of the town on Sabbath evening, after 
closing my third service. On one occasion a 
party of young people from Buxton had come 
to Limington to spend the Sabbath, visit rela- 
tives and see the work of reformation, as a 
number of their acquaintances were among the 
converts, and hoping that they might find " 
some light for themselves, being under deep 
conviction. They came up the mountain to 
brother Harvey's where I made my home, hav- 
ing been in meeting all day, and found no re- 
lief in their minds, and they resolved not to re- 
turn to Buxton without another effort. I had 
left to get my horse, taking my saddle with 
me, intending to go from the pasture across 
the mountains to my home. I sought in vain 
for my horse till it was dark, and returned to 
the house. Some of the family said, " We 
have been praying that you might not find 
your horse;" and my reply was, "I guess 
your prayers were heard." The conversation 
soon turned upon the topic then uppermost of 
all, the salvation of the soul, then to singing 
and to prayer. While I .was praying, one of 
these young friends from Buxton knelt and 
began to cry for mercy — then another and an- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 3$ 

other, and before I closed the whole party of six 
were on their knees in agonizing prayer for 
themselves. When the burden had somewhat 
subsided from my owm mind, a young man be- 
longing to the family who did not profess re- 
ligion himself, came to me, and, in a low 
whisper, as I was still on my knees, said, 
" Calvin is out in the door yard begging for 
mercy." This to me was glorious news. This 
w r as Calvin McKenney, whose wife was 
among the converts. He had sometimes op- 
posed her, and then he would relent and en- 
courage her, — then oppose, &c. His mother 
w r as a woman of much prayer, his father 
was a praying man, and he found it hard to 
wade through all these influences and live in 
sin. He and his wife had accompanied these 
friends from Buxton, and were expecting them 
to return with them and spend the night. The 
Buxton company all on their knees — -his wife 
in earnest prayer for him and others, he start- 
ed for home, went but a few steps from the 
door, fell on the ground, and was at once in 
earnest prayer for himself. I arose from my 
knees, went to his side and knelt in prayer for 
him. My voice rising to its usual pitch soon 
brought out the entire company, his wife 
among the rest, and she knelt by his side and 



36 MEMOIR OF 

her prayers and the prayers of others on that 
evening seemed like the raising of earth to 
heaven. The very stars seemed to reflect 
back the answer of prayer, and it was a 
heaven to go to heaven in. The sound went 
through the neighborhood, and other young 
people came out to see what was transpiring ; 
as the most of the night was spent in these 
exercises, so much like labor, it was a season 
of glorious rest to me. The morning came 
and I returned home, thanking God and tak- 
ing courage. I was soon called to Standish 
to baptize a sister Meeds, wife of Artemas 
Meeds, and mother of F. Meeds, Esq., of the 
Meeds House of this city, and D. J, Meeds, 
now one of the deacons of the church of this 
place, they being but boys at that time. This 
was a very interesting day. Sister Meeds 
became a mother in Israel, and lived to see her 
husband converted (then an intemperate man) 
and a number of her children, who became 
devoted Christians, and very useful in the 
church, attributed mostly to a wife's and moth- 
er's prayers. 

During my stay at South Limington, with 
the assistance of brethren and friends, I 
bought ten acres of land, erected a cottage on 
it, and had quite a comfortable home. The 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 37 

voluntary contributions of the people, with 
hard labor and strict economy of myself and 
wife, kept the wolf of want from our door. 
Here also our second child, a son, was born, 
our eldest then being six years of age. In 
course of time I received a pressing invitation 
to remove to the north part of the town ; ac- 
cordingly, I sold my stand, redeemed my 
father's farm mortgage, and accepted the in- 
vitation. Brethren and friends aiding, I bought 
twenty-five acres of land, erected buildings on 
it and was again settled in my own home. 
Here I labored, preaching in the north meet- 
ing-house, as it was then called, on the Sab- 
bath, traveling much in the different parts of 
the town, and the adjoining towns of Cornish, 
Hiram and Baldwin, attending funerals and 
baptisms, and many were added to the Lord. 

Up to this time the Freewill Baptists of Lim- 
ington had remained in one church, and num- 
bered about three hundred members. Elder 
Bullock was settled in the south, Elder Emery 
in the west, and myself in the north, there be- 
ing three meeting-houses in the town belong- 
ing to the denomination. 

In this way we labored with much union 
and but little friction, each seeming to vie with 
the other, in striving to do and get good. . I 



38 MEMOIR OF 

remember in this connection, the first gift I 
ever received as ministerial support ; it was an 
old-fashioned silver quarter, given me by a 
brother, Samuel Manson ; that quarter then 
seemed very much larger than whole dollars 
have since. I said, " God bless you, brother 
Manson," for it argued to me that one man at 
least had some appreciation of my labors. 



CHAPTER V. 



A good degree of union in sentiment and 
action prevailed among the ministers and in 
the church, till the temperance and anti-slav- 
ery questions were started. These questions 
first arose in the Congregational society at the 
Corner. The Freewill Baptist ministers and 
people stood aloof for a time, and being the 
most numerous and influential in town, the re- 
form made slow progress, we failing to see 
that what we called the temperate use of strong 
drink was the legitimate parent of its intem- 
perate use. As a minister of the gospel, I 
was compelled by the logic of my own reason- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 39 

ing to take my position against its use. I had 
seen the blighting influences of its use, tempo- 
rally, morally and religiously, and the vow I 
had made when but a boy, on seeing a tear- 
drop on my mother's cheek, caused by the ut- 
terance of improper w r ords from one she loved 
as husband, and I as father, — together with 
the arguments of those who had espoused the 
cause of temperance, and the fact that all who 
loved strong drink, and all w r ho wanted to 
make money by its sale, were arrayed against 
the reform, — had much to do in my decision to 
sign the pledge and live by it myself, and in- 
duce all others to do so as far as I could. More 
than forty years have since passed, and I am 
still " fighting it out on this line." I have 
lived it, — I have preached it, — I have prayed 
it, and I have voted it whenever I could do so, 
conscientiously believing that I and all others 
are responsible to God for the influence we 
may have in all these matters. At first I 
could induce but few to join with me ; only 
thirteen, I think, took the pledge the evening 
that I did. 

The stormy cloud overshadowed us. Elder 

B , my senior in the ministry and in age, 

took sides against me. The opposition was 
formidable, and many of my old friends were 



40 MEMOIR OF 

foremost in their opposition to what they called 
an innovation to the customs of the fathers. I 
said, If it was the custom of the fathers to 
.drink, and by their example induce others to 
drink, I was for innovation. 

Brother B had the advantage of age 

and influence, and would sometimes bless God 
for rum, while I, as best I could, would preach 
against it. Brother Emery, though much 
from home in his travels to preach, joined with 
me, which did much to help me. Others fell 
in with us, and soon we felt sure that the right 
must prevail. A very unpleasant state of 
things was soon brought about, however, and 
the church was reported to the Q. M. A coun- 
cil was sent to aid in the adjustment of our diffi- 
culties, and their decision was accepted by the 
friends of temperance, but rejected by the 
church. The report of the council went to the 
next Q^M,, and was accepted by that bod}s 
and then followed a declaration of independ- 
ence by the church ; and, subsequently, the 
church was expelled from the Q^, M. I had 
by this time formed a church in the north part 
of the town, and wilh my church, having tem- 
perance as one plank of our platform, was re- 
ceived into the Q. M., so that when the old 
church, with its minister, Elder B , was 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 41 

rejected, I and my church remained in full 
fellowship. Then came the fierce struggle for 
membership in our two churches, one on the 
basis of temperance, and the other without any 
restraint,, provided they did not get drunk. 

One circumstance which occurred during 
this temperance and anti-temperance war, I 
deem proper to record, which is this : A min- 
ister in another town, who espoused the anti- 
side of the question, came to the assistance of 
Elder B , preached the anties into an ec- 
stasy of joy, left another appointment and 
went home. Of the two he was much the 
smarter man, and I dreaded him much .more 

than I did Elder B . The time for his 

next visit came, and the people came together 
in large numbers. They had waited long for 
the minister, when an individual arose in the 
congregation and said, "He will certainly be 
here, for I was at C. village this forenoon, and 
he was there on his way here." But no minis- 
ter came, and the people dispersed. It was 
afterwards learned that some of his old friends 
had met him there and invited him to take a 
glass of liquor, which he did, and then he 
wanted another, and being a man given to in- 
dulgence in his youth, he was soon unfit to 
appear in public, and so went home. At the 



42 > MEMOIR OF 

time I did not, nor do I now, believe him 
a bad man, yet I think this was permitted to 
open his eyes and the eyes of those who op- 
posed the reform. I was not slow, however, 
to use irtn favor of my own side of the argu- 
ment. 

Another circumstance was this : My broth- 
er Theodore was ten years younger than my- 
self, and for a long time I had been deeply 
concerned for him, when my burden for him 
was gone. He was then a young man at work 
with a brother Cobb, in the west part of the 
town. Returning home one night from the 
examination and ordination of brother John 
Pinkham, of Tamworth, passing through what 
was then called the ten-mile woods, in Free- 
dom and vicinity, my thoughts again turned to 
him ; and in my intense anxiety for his con- 
version, I seemed to lose all knowledge of 
time and place, as. I was in earnest intercession 
with God for his salvation. How long this ex- 
ercise lasted I could never tell. But in the 
exercise, it seemed to me that I visited him,— 
prayed with and for him, — heard him cry for 
mercy, — saw him delivered, — heard him re- 
late hi? experience, — baptized him, — saw him 
under the impressions of a divine call,-— heard 
him relate his call to preach the gospel, — 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 43 

helped ordain him, and, last of all, saw him 
and myself baptizing our father and mother. 
My horse meanwhile had kept on his way, 
and I reached home just as the sun was rising, 
having traveled all night. On meeting my 
wife I exclaimed, " Bless the Lord, Theodore 
is going to be converted ;" and then related my 
vision or waking dream as you please to call 
it. After suitable rest, I went over the mount- 
ain where my brother was at work. It was 
conference day at brother Cobb's, and when 
he left the field he invited Theodore to go 
down to the house with him. At first he 
thought he would go, as it would give him a 
chance to rest ; but seeing my horse tied to the 
fence, the thought struck him, as related to me 
afterwards, that I was there after him. So he 
staid in the field till dark without his supper. 
I told brother Cobb that I came with a special 
message from God to Theodore, and that I 
should stay all night, if necessary, to deliver 
it. As it became too dark to hoe, and my 
horse was not at the fence, he thought I had 
gone, and so came to the house. I met him 
as I never had before, but suppressed my feel- 
ings somewhat till he had taken his supper, 
and then I did the errand I had come to do. 
He listened with calm dignity and respect, and 



44 ' MEMOIR OF 

then I said, " I must pray with and for you 
once more, and it seems to me that it is the 
last time I shall ever feel to pray for you if 
you do not submit to God." It was a time of 
intense feeling with me, amounting to an ago- 
ny of spirit for him, and before I closed, he 
fell on his knees and vocally prayed for him- 
self. The whole family seemed to participate 
in the interest, and were all on their knees in 
prayer at once. The burden was soon gone 
from my mind and was on him and them ; and 
as I sat and calmly surveyed the scene, I 
thought then and now think that I had a pre- 
cious foretaste of heaven. Not a pain of body 
or mind did I experience, but all was peace 
within, and a serenity as calm as a sea of 
glass, and bright as though it were mingled 
with fire. 1 witnessed what I had felt assured 
of, and my faith never wavered till the whole 
vision was realized, although it was about 
eight years in being fulfilled. 

I was once some forty miles from home, and 
my horse threw off one of his fore shoes, 
which I found, and called at a blacksmith's 
shop to get it set, and told the man that I was 
without money, but if he would set the shoe, I 
would at some future time see that he was 
paid, He declined to set it, saying that he 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 45 

did not work for travelers that had no money. 
There was no other smith within several miles, 
and I said to him, " If you will not do it for a 
traveler without money, please do it as an act 
of mercy to the beast." At the close of my 
plea, he angrily said, " Lead in your horse." 
I did so, and he set the shoe. The charge in 
those days was ten cents, and I offered him a 
new Watts' Hymn Book, that cost seventy-five 
cents, The man readily took it, and I rode 
off singing, and really feeling that I could 
sing as well without the book as he could with 
it. I have never seen the man since, but I 
hoped then, and have ever since, that a good 
God would forgive and save him, 

I continued my labors in Limington and vi- 
cinity for several years, during which time I 
saw a number of revivals and many conver- 
sions, and was much blessed in temporal and 
spiritual things. My youngest sister, Sarah, 
married a son of one of the deacons of my 
church, James T, Lord, who was one of my 
special friends. I married them, baptized 
them, and they were both especially dear to 
me. They had a number of children, one of 
them is now a 'licensed preacher ; my sister, 
having passed over the river, is at rest in 
heaven. 



46 MEMOIR OF 

I traveled eastward through Kennebec Co., 
Penobscot and Aroostook, to the St. Johns riv- 
er, to Fredericton ; and during this journey, 
had many interesting seasons in preaching and 
praying. I distributed a large number of 
small hymn books which were published about 
that time by A. Rollins and John Stevens. 
I had joined with brother Rollins in the publi- 
cation of this little work because we thought 
that it would do good, and because we thought 
it would help us in our penury and want ; and 
we had reason to hope that we were not disap- 
pointed in either. This was before we had 
any denominational hymn book. 

I continued to labor in this way until my 
church at North Limington numbered some 
one hundred and sixty members. Another 
church was formed in the west part of the 
town and eastern part of Limerick, with tem- 
perance as one plank in its platform. This 
church numbered some sixty members, and in 
it was brother Charles Bean, who began to 
preach when a young man, and has been a 
most devoted and successful minister of the 
gospel. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS, 47 



CHAPETR VI. 

In the fall of 1837 a P^ ea was ma de through 
the Star, for help to be sent to the Montville 
Q^ M., and that plea was signed " A Youth." 
When I read that plea, my feelings were stir- 
red to their very depth, and after making it a 
matter of prayer, I decided that, with the ap- 
probation of our Home Mission Society, I 
would go, I went before the Board, then 
held in connection with the Y. M. at Ray- 
mond, offered my services, and was accepted, 
on the condition that I was to look to the Q^ 
M. where I was to labor for support. I joyfully 
accepted the responsibilities of the position, 
believing that God was calling me to that field 
of labor. 

After arranging my affairs, and commending 
my family to the care of Him who takes note 
of the fall of a sparrow, I set off upon the 
journey with feelings of sadness at parting 
with those I loved. My family, my church in 
Limington, and the converts in the surround- 
ing neighborhood and towns, Cornish espe- 
cially, where I had labored in connection with 
brother E. True, who came from Vermont un- 



48 MEMOIR OF 

der the influence of a divine call, I have no 
doubt, were very near my heart, but duty was 
uppermost, and the pleasures of the family cir- 
cle and the joys of Christian association were 
upon the altar. 

At the end of the second day's travel I reach- 
ed Montville, inquired for and found the house 
.of brother Matthias Ulmer, the clerk of the Q. 
M. He was absent, but I related the circum- 
stances that had called me hither, spoke of the 
article published in the Morning Star\ signed 
" A Youth," and as I looked around the room 
upon younger brothers of the absent man, I 
fixed my gaze on one of them and said, " If I 
am not mistaken, that is the youth who wrote 
that article." The boys confessed that I was 
right. 

Soon brother Ulmer came, and I reiterated 
to him my errand. He seemed much depress- 
ed, and told me that he was fearful that I was 
too late ; stating that the last Q,. M, had to 
be run by a Baptist minister. That moving 
aw r ay, backsliding, and general apostasy had 
done their work, and the brethren of the Q^, 
M., as well as himself, were discouraged, and 
he thought the effort would prove a failure. 
This was on Thursday evening ; we had pray- 
ers and retired. In the morning I told him I 



REV. JOHN STEVENS, 49 

was not in the habit of retreating till I had 
fired once, if no more, and I would be under 
his directions till Monday morning. He might 
make appointments for that day, — the next 
and the day following, which would be the 
Sabbath, and then we would decide what was 
best to be done in the premises. He did so, 
— went with me to the meetings, and w T hen 
Monday morning came he was quite encour- 
aged, and was very urgent for me to continue 
my labors and see what could be done. I 
concluded to do so, and sent out appointments 
in various directions. These meetings were 
encouraging, and my labors w r ere continued 
up to the next session of the Q^. M., held in 
the meeting-house at Smith's Mills in the town 
of Hope. When w r e assembled the prospect 
was quite discouraging. I stood on the hill 
near the meeting-house, and counted more 
houses in sight than there were people inside. 
I felt sad as I surveyed the whole scene, 
and thought of my little home and friends in 
the western part of the State, but the thought 
of doing duty was above all other considera- 
tions, and, with a few of God's faithful ones, 
w r e went through the Q^ M. business, and it 
seemed to be my lot to preach. I did as w r ell 
as I could, through much weakness, yet the 



50 MEMOIR OF 

good Lord was with us by his awakening 
power, and the meeting was protracted for 
some ten or twelve days. The anxious seats 
were generally full, and many were hopefully 
converted to God. Whole families were 
among the converts. One by the name of 
Fuller, on the Ridge, including father, moth- 
er, sons and the only daughter, were made 
happy in the joys of the Saviour. 

Several incidents took place in this meeting 
which seem worth recording. One in refer- 
ence to the occupancy of the front pews by 
those who wished to identify themselves as 
subjects of prayer. They were so used for 
several evenings, when a man insisted on oc- 
cupying one of the pews, and as I asked him 
to vacate his seat to make room for the anx- 
ious, he very decidedly yet politely, replied, 
"This is my pew, sir." I remarked, " All 
right, sir," and then conducted the mourners 
to another pew ; the result was, he was left 
alone in his pew. Prayer was offered for the 
anxious, not forgetting the lone man in his 
own pew. As he informed me afterwards, he 
went into that pew a hardened sinner, and an 
opposer to the work, yet his convictions there 
culminated in a resolution to seek the Lord 
and obtain pardon of sin if it was for him. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 51 

This resolution was put to a practical test, and 
Esq. Sylvester became a happy convert. 

A young man, one of the Fuller family, said 
to me, "I have got Thomas Paine's Age of 
Reason, and now I am a Christian I have no 
more use for infidel works. What shall I do 
with it?" I said, " Hand it over to me, it you 
can feel safe to do so," This he did, and for 
the first time in my life, I had the opportunity 
of reading Paine's Age of Reason, or as I call- 
ed it, his (Paine's) Age of Nonsense. That 
young brother became a pillar and a deacon 
in the church, lived a useful life and died a 
happy death. 

Another incident showed me that God had 
his own way of doing his work, and all that I 
had to do was to be under his guidance. I 
was assisted in this revival by the faithful la- 
bors of brethren E. T. Fogg, Matthias Ulmer, 
Rev. Samuel Whitten and others. News of 
the revival spread into the towns joining, and 
a young lady by the name of Lamb came from 
Lincolnville, six miles on foot, to see and hear 
for herself, and especially to see and hear the 
new minister, or the missionary as I was then 
called. She came into the meeting with 
haughty airs, and, as she afterwards told me, 
surve} r ed the surroundings with a feeling of 



52 MEMOIR OF 

contempt for all that she could see and hear, 
and especially for the one pointed out to her 
as the missionary, saying to herself, " I can 
stand all that he can say or do." 

I began to sing one of my favorite hymns, 
which was new to her; the voice was new, 
and, ere she was aware, she found herself in 
tears as I came to that part of the hymn where 
it says of Christ, 

''He's got the keys of death and hell, 

He'll lock the sinner in, 
While those shall with their Saviour dwell 

Who hate the ways of sin.'" 

Before the meeting closed, she was on her 
knees pleading for mercy, and subsequently 
became a happy convert and went home re- 
joicing in a new-found peace. 

During this meeting, Rev. J, N. Rines came 
to my assistance, and I found him a good yoke- 
fellow in the work of the Lord, The work 
spread into other towns, Appleton, Lincoln- 
ville, Camden, South and North Montville, 
Liberty, &c. At McFarland's Corner, in the 
west part of Montville, was ground traveled 
over by the celebrated Colby, with here and 
there a standing tree of the old growth, that 
had withstood the powerful appeals of that de- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 53 

voted servant of the Lord. They were hard 
to reach, yet some of them were brought down 
in the eleventh hour. The youth, like the 
young saplings, were more easily moved, "and 
the conversions were principally among this 
class. I ha$ now got fairly into the fight with 
the enemies of revival. Skepticism of almost 
every grade arose in opposition, and I found 
myself often wanting in logic to rebut their ar- 
guments, but the Lord was with me, and the 
work went gloriously on till some 250 souls 
w r ere happy in his love.. 

We next went to Lincolnville village, and 
held a protracted meeting, which lasted twen- 
ty-five consecutive days and evenings. Here 
we witnessed much of God's power in the sal- 
vation of souls. Among the saved were a 
number of young men who became able min- 
isters of the New Testament. One by the 
name of Mathews is a leading Baptist minister 
in the State. Another, Jason Mariner, be- 
came a very successful minister in the Free- 
will Baptist denomination, and like all men 
worthy of notable mark, whether statesmen or 
ministers, he was good to his mother. Anoth- 
er was Justus Erskine, a young man of much 
promise, nor have we been disappointed in our 
expectations. Matthias Ulmer and Ezekiel 



54 MEMOIR OF 

T. Fogg, of South Montville, were awakened 
to a new sense of obligation, and both were 
subsequently licensed to preach, and ordained 
as Evangelists. 

The late Rev. Ebenezer Knowlton, then a 
young man belonging to the Christian Con- 
nection, came to us and united heart and hand, 
bringing with him most of his church in South 
Montville. He was ordained as pastor of the 
two churches, then united in one, and was, till 
his death, very much beloved for his work's 
sake, and respected for his talents as a states- 
man and a minister of Christ. He was a 
member of Congress for one term, but declin- 
ed a second nomination, because he wished to 
devote his time to preaching the gospel, which 
he considered his life work. 

Many striking incidents of individual con- 
version I must forbear to name, but one 1 must 
not omit, I had an appointment at Knox's 
Corner for a protracted meeting, and at the 
close of my first meeting, a gentleman invited 
me to make his house my home during my 
stay in the place. I did so, and went to his 
house. It being the last day of the year, I 
told the family that it was my practice to sit 
up and pray the old year out and the new one 
in. The family chose to sit with me, and 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 55 

the time of prayer was very impressive. 
When dinner was ready the next day, we all 
stood around the table (it was then customary 
to stand and ask a blessing on table comforts), 
and the man kept his position till the amen 
was pronounced, and then left for the barn, 
but only to get into the door-yard, where he 
fell and began to cry for mercy. His voice 
reached us at the table, and his wife left for 
one room, his daughter, a young lady, went 
to another room, and left me and George Ul- 
mer, a fellow-laborer, to eat or pray as we 
thought best. As our meeting would soon 
come, we concluded that the former ' was 
most urgent, and we ate our dinner while the 
family were away in tears and prayer. A 
multiplicity of engagements made it necessa- 
ry for me to leave the place, and the Baptist 
minister gathered the fruits of the revival. 
The next time I passed that way, this. man and 
his family were good and respected members 
of the Baptist church ; he was afterwards 
sheriff of Knox county. 

At the twenty-five days' meeting in Lincoln- 
ville, I had invited the mourners to the anx- 
ious seats, and, while in prayer, I felt some- 
thing falling on my head and around me. 
When I had closed, I found that a pack of 



56 MEMOIR OF 

cards had been thrown at me from the gallery, 
and gathering up a part of them, and holding 
them up before the congregation, I said to the 
young men in the gallery, " I shall take these 
home and put them among my sacred scripts 
to remember Lincolnville by ;" and then turn- 
ed my remarks to the anxious, and gave such 
advice as I thought best. 

The next Thanksgiving day, four young 
men, supposed to be those concerned in throw- 
ing the cards upon my head, went upon the 
pond to skate, and the ice being thin, they 
broke in and three out of the four were 
drowned. The three were brought into the 
meeting-house, and thence carried to the 
grave. Ah ! the sad fate of those who willful- 
ly sin against God ! 

During this meeting, there was a young 
man sick nigh unto death ; he had been a 
school-teacher, and was a favorite among the 
young people, — had long been an infidel, and 
had promised his young friends that he would 
die by his infidel principles. Many of them 
believed that he would. The young lady that 
waited upon him, would sometimes approach 
him with the New Testament in her hand, and 
such was his enmity against the book, that, 
weak as he was, in the last stages of consump- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 57 

ti©n, he would reach out his emaciated arm 
and strike, or attempt to strike it away from 
her. I was utterly without hope in his case, 
till one day I felt impressed to go and see him, 
although he had taken pains to have it under- 
stood that he wanted no visits from me, or any 
other minister of the gospel. I went to the 
house, and found him sitting in his chair, hav- 
ing the appearance of a corpse. I was full of 
a keen sense of his imminent danger, but ap- 
proached him with much care, and first in- 
quired after his state of bodily health, — his 
mind w T as remarkably clear, and he frankly 
gave me his history, and said, " Here I am 
about to die." I remarked, "Do you feel 
willing and ready to die?" He answered, 
" No, I am not prepared," I then said, 
"What, in your own judgment, will prepare 
you?" He replied, with a great degree of 
feeling, " Nothing but an interest in the aton- 
ing blood of Christ, and I must have that ap- 
plied here or I am lost." I said, "Do you 
feel willing that I should pray that you might 
now receive this boon?" His answer was, " I 
do." I then said, " Are you willing to kneel 
w r ith me and pray for yourself, while I pray 
for you?" He answered, " I am," and slowly 
turned around to his chair, and looked like a 



58 MEMOIR OF 

kneeling corpse ; I offered prayer, — he broke 
out in audible sobs and prayed for himself. 
His infidelity forsook him, and he then and 
there threw himself upon the mercy of Christ 
and plead for the pardon of sin. It was then 
time for me to go back to the meeting, and as 
I told the congregation what had transpired in 
the sick room, it was like a thunder clap in a 
clear sky. One of the brethren came to me at 
the close of the meeting, much alarmed, and 
said, " I am sorry you said anything about it, 
for the Universalist preacher has gone right 
up there from the meeting, and he will proba- 
bly make the young man deny it all," I told 
him not to fear, God would see to that, and it 
would all be right. The minister did go as he 
said, but the young man was true to his con- 
victions. This was a glorious victory, and si- 
lenced skepticism and infidelity more than I 
could have done with all the logic I was 
master of. When I afterwards came back, 
the young man was gone, but he was true to 
his convictions, — sought and found the Saviour 
and died happy in the love of Christ. 

In conversation with Elder McFarland at 
his house, I happened to refer to the discus- 
sion held by Mr. Kendrick, a Baptist minister, 
and a Universalist minister, not long before 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 59 

that time in another town, where the Univer- 
salist denied the moral agency of man. Elder 
McFarland claimed that this was the true doc- 
trine, but it would not do to preach it, I 
claimed, that if it was the true doctrine, it 
ought to be preached. He claimed that he 
was excused because the people would not re- 
ceive it. One of his leading men heard of 
the discussion, and sent me a challenge to dis- 
cuss the question publicly, 1 accepted, and a 
day was appointed. The people assembled 
and filled the large school-house to its utmost 
capacity. The question was fairly stated in 
these words : It is as much impossible for 
man in his moral agency to counteract God's 
design, as it is for one drop of water to rise up 
in Nobleborough pond and obstruct the ebb 
and flow of the tide in Damariscotta river. 

He took the affirmative and I the negative. 
My opponent spoke three-quarters of an hour, 
and I occupied fifteen minutes, and then re- 
marked that I was ready for the vote, as it was 
to be decided by vote of the congregation. To 
his, and also to my own surprise, but one per- 
son rose in favor of his argument. As nearly 
two-thirds of the congregation were Universal- 
ists, I expected he would have a strong vote; 
but, as it was, I declined to have the negative 



6o 



MEMOIR OF 



vote taken, and said to him, " You see, sir, 
that your own friends are ashamed of your 
doctrine, and I do not wonder at it." This 
closed the only public discussion I ever had, 
the result of which was a triumph of truth over 
error. 

A Mr. French, of Libert)^ village, a very 
prominent and leading man, a merchant in the 
place, and one of the strong advocates of Uni- 
versalism, whose wife and daughter had be- 
come interested in the revival, said to me, " I 
want you to make my house your home. I 
have plenty of straw and provender, and you 
and your horse shall be more than welcome. 
For myself, I believe Universalism, but I do 
not want my wife and children to believe it." 
I thanked him for his kindness, and said, " I 
do not understand why you wish that your 
wife and children should not believe what you 
believe to be true." He very calmly and yet 
decidedly said, " I was once in the enjoyment 
of religion myself, and I have seen Universal- 
ism in all its various phases, from germ to 
ripened fruit, and the doctrine, judged by' its 
fruit, is bad, and I do not want my family to 
believe it. I prefer that they should go to 
your meetings and be converted." I accepted 
his kind invitation, and his wife and one of his 



REy. JOHN STEVENS. 6l 

daughters were numbered with the converts, 
and I baptized them, This to me ? was mighty 
logic against the doctrine of the unconditional 
salvation of all men. 

Another circumstance which took place be- 
fore I left South Limington was this : In the 
midst of the interesting revivals in various 
towns, I was impressed with the duty of going 
back to Sebago, where I commenced to 
preach. I went, and the Lord poured out 
his Spirit upon the people. That same Wil- 
liam Haley was again aroused and powerfully 
wrought upon. His wife became most ear- 
nestly engaged, and was very faithful in' duty. 
He became so much aw r akened that he finally 
came to the conclusion that he must either sub- 
mit to God, or stay away from the meetings. 
So, to settle the matter, he swore that he 
w r ould never go into a meeting again where 
John preached. I continued my labors in the 
place, and one day I had a meeting near his 
house, and I still had an intense feeling for 
him. He was plowing in his field. His wife 
had to pass him as she came to meeting, and 
after she had passed him, he was so distressed 
in his mind, that he told his boy who was driv- 
ing the team, to turn out the oxen and let them 
feed, while he went up to the meeting a little 



62 MEMOIR OF 

while. He came, and to be true to his prom- 
ise, sat on the door-step and listened to the 
sermon. While I was preaching, a very heavy- 
shower came over us, and in the midst of thun- 
der, lightning and rain, he was glad to come 
in. I paused as he passed by me into the 
room, and then resumed speaking, and God 
continued thundering and lightning, and the 
rain fell in torrents. This was a most impress- 
ive scene, and the whole assembly seemed to 
feel the influence of a divine power. Haley 
sat on his seat a few moments, and then fell 
upon his knees and cried aloud for mercy ; and 
when I closed speaking, a number of the con- 
gregation, Haley among the rest, were in an 
agony of prayer for themselves. 

It seemed to me then, that, as I had ex- 
hausted all human instrumentalities, God sent 
this shower to do what was not in the power 
of mortals to perform. I have loved the ap- 
pearance of a thunder-cloud ever since. Wil- 
liam Haley was there hopefully converted, 
and has lived a devoted Christian life, and the 
last time I saw him more than forty years had 
passed, and he was rejoicing in the hope of a 
life beyond the grave. 

I continued my labors in the Montville Q^, 
M., occasionally returning to my family, till 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 6$ 

1889, when I was chosen by the Penobscot Y. 
M, a delegate to the General Conference in 
Ohio. I performed my duties as delegate, and 
returned, having traveled 1500 miles, and of 
the one hundred dollars raised by the Y. M, 
to meet my expenses, I had about thirty dol- 
lars left. Tired in, but not of, the work, I 
had become deeply interested in the welfare 
of the Montville Q^ M., and felt that my labor 
for the time being must be in that section. It 
was thought best that I should move my fami- 
ly into that section of the State. Accordingly 
I sold my little home in North Limington, and 
in January, 1839, m o ye d to Windsor Neck, — 
bought a little farm and settled my family 
there, w T hile I continued to travel and preach 
under the direction of the Home Mission 
Board, Here in Windsor, Whitefield, Jeffer- 
son, South China, Palermo, and other places, 
I witnessed much of the outpouring of the 
Spirit, and many were brought to Christ, 
Here I remained some seven years till my 
boys had grown to be young men. I had giv- 
en them a tolerably good academical educa- 
tion, and they were competent to teach in 
most of the common branches, but as they 
preferred to leave home and look out for them- 
selves, I gave them up to the God in whom I 



64 MEMOIR OF 

trusted. They had both, while with me, en- 
tertained a hope in the Saviour, and when 
they left it was a day of sadness to me and my 
wife, she fully believing that she would never 
see the eldest one again. This proved to be 
true. For she died before he returned, 



CHAPTER VII. 

Some incidents may be worthy of record 
during the several years I resided in Windsor. 
During a revival in Jefferson and Whitefield, 
in which we witnessed many conversions, I 
was assisted by brethren Stinson, Tyler, Bush 
and others. These men were workers in the 
Lord's, vineyard, and I found them good yoke- 
fellows in Christ. 

In Whitefield the revival interest was such 
that the brethren, assisted by the community 
generally, and some of the people in Jefferson, 
built a meeting-house near Whitefield Corner, 
and for a time worship was sustained in it. I 
preached there a portion of the time with good 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 65 

success ; fifteen happy converts were baptized 
at one time, and others followed the Master in 
the same ordinance at different times. 

About one mile distant from the Corner in 
Whitefield, lived a man whose wife belonged 
to the Baptist church, a woman of much 
prayer, and considerable strength of bod} 7 and 
mind. The husband had been forward for 
prayers in the meeting on several occasions ; 
he prayed in secret, and still found no relief. 
She had felt for some time that he was having 
it impressed on him to kneel and pray in his 
family, and that he would never obtain relief 
till he did so. One morning he was called to 
breakfast, came in and sat down to the table, 
but could not taste food ; and attempting to 
leave the house, his wife, thinking that he felt 
it his duty to pray in his family, caught him by 
the arm, and, looking him square in the face, 
said, ". You shall not go out of this house un- 
til you have done your duty here." She led 
him to a chair, and prevailed on him to kneel 
and pray, she kneeling with him ; and then 
and there an evidence of pardon came, and 
he was made very happy in the Saviour. I 
afterward baptized him, and in relating his ex- 
perience, he said that he was one of the sail- 
ors on the ship that carried the timber for the 



66 MEMOIR OF 

first meeting-house ever built on the Sandwich 
Islands. He lived a faithful Christian life and 
died a happy death. 

I also established a meeting at Weeks' 
Mills, South China, and we witnessed a glori- 
ous revival in that place. Here were some of 
the most devoted members of the Windsor 
church, and although it weakened our interest 
there, it was thought best for them to go on 
with the interest at the Mills. Deacon Doe 
and his family lived here, also brethren Howes 
and Chadwick. Brother Abel Chadwick did 
much in aiding the cause, and we succeeded 
in building a house of worship. Here lived 
the father of G. F. Mosher, the present editor 
of the Morning Star. He was then but a boy, 
and the Lord touched his young heart, and he 
is now a shining light in the world, 

I also labored in a protracted meeting in the 
west part of Windsor, in connection with the 
Baptist minister by the name of White, and 
others. These brethren had always worship- 
ed in a school-house, and when I arrived one 
evening, the house was literally packed. I 
said, " I am glad to see you crowded, and I 
hope it will lead you to build a meeting-house." 
This produced a smile. Although it was a 
Baptist meeting, I felt quite at home, and pro- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 67 

ceeded to speak as the Lord gave me utter- 
ance, and it was a solemn, weeping time, As 
1 sat down, one of the Baptist ministers said to 
me, in a low tone, "What shall we do? we 
are so crowded that we can not ask the anx- 
ious forward." I said "If it was my meeting, I 
would ask the deacons and some others ta 
leave, and make room for the anxious." He 
said, "I am fearful that it will not be well re- 
ceived," being in March and quite cold. I 
said, "If you are afraid to do it, I will ask 
them." He wished me to do so, and I arose 
and said, "We want Deacon Barton and Dea- 
con Hallowell, and about twenty others, who 
hope you are Christians, to go out and make 
room for as many more to come to the anxious 
seats," They very readily did so, and about 
twenty came forward for prayers. This was 
then a solemn place. God was in our midst.. 
Many prayers were offered, and several pray- 
ed aloud for mercy, and the work went glori- 
ously on, Some that stood through the meet- 
ing fell on their way home, and the work 
spread into different neighborhoods. As this 
was Baptist ground, I advised the converts to 
unite with that church, which they did, nearly 
all of them, and in June following, they dedi- 
cated a new and convenient meeting-house, 



68 MEMOIR OF 

and I had the satisfaction of taking part in the 
services. 

I also traveled to Boothbay, and there la- 
bored in a glorious revival. I spent most of 
the time for a year in this revival. The 
church was much quickened, and many were 
hopefully converted. In one of our protracted 
meetings, a proposition was made that all who 
hoped that they were Christians, and all who 
wanted to be Christians, should kneel for a 
season of prayer, and it was judged that four 
hundred were on their knees together ; and at 
another time, ninety were at the anxious seats 
for prayer. A sea captain came to me at the 
close and said, " My crew are all forward for 
prayers to-night, and I shall sail to-morrow." 
He was a pious man, and had been waiting in 
the harbor for his crew to become interested. 
One of them told me after his return, that the 
worst words he heard uttered during the voy- 
age, were Yes sir, and No sir,— such was the 
effect of the revival on sailors' habits. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 69 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Having accepted an appointment from the 
Home Mission Board to go to Nova Scotia, in 
answer to a call from that province, I went, 
but I was not contented there, feeling that it 
was not my place of labor, and so returned 
after three months, having had the satisfaction 
of seeing some hopeful conversions. But it 
has ever seemed to me that this was one of the 
mistakes of my life, and I have believed that 
God w r ould overrule mistakes, and I have left it 
with him. 

In all these places where I have traveled 
and preached, I have never failed to bear tes- 
timony against intemperance in its various 
forms, — the sale of intoxicating drinks, and 
the evils of slavery. In bearing a faithful tes- 
timony against these evils, I have often brought 
the fire of the enemy upon me, and have fre- 
quently had the cold shoulder of brethren in 
the church. This was particularly true in 
Boothbay, where a brother in the church who 
w r as a trader, brought into the place a half- 
barrel of rum for sale. I reproved him, and 
in public said that I should as soon have 



70 MEMOIR OF v. 

thought of his buying and bringing into the 
place a half-barrel of Satan. For this he nev- 
er forgave me, and I never asked him to. My 
support was always raised by private dona- 
tions and public contributions, and my uniform 
rule, when contributions were about to be tak- 
en, was to say that we did not wish rumsell- 
ers or slave holders to put in their money ; for 
it was the price of blood, and ought not to go 
into the Lord's treasury. All candidates for 
baptism were questioned upon these points, 
and if they were not sound, were set aside. 

Another incident of travel, when I went to 
Byron, N. Y., to General Conference, was 
this : On our way from Stonington to New 
York City, on board the steamboat, it was re- 
ported that a young man had been robbed of 
some fifteen hundred dollars during the night ; 
and as his berth was near to mine, I did not 
know but suspicion would rest on me. When 
we reached New York, we were all locked in- 
to the cabin to be searched. I believed that 
God would care for and vindicate the innocent. 
The young man himself was the first to be 
searched, and he was the only one, for he was 
made to own that he gambled the money 
away, and then cut his own pocket and claim- 
ed that he was robbed, so that he could ac- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 7 1 

count to his employers, as the money belong- 
ed to them. What became of him I never 
knew, but this I do know, that he entered the 
road to death, and so do all who take a like 
course, This delay compelled us to stop in 
the city over the Sabbath, and, in company 
with others of the delegation from Maine, I 
attended church with our colored friends, and 
preached in the evening to a congregation of 
nearly fifteen hundred persons. These people 
were very enthusiastic when we announced our 
sentiments on the subject of slavery. So on 
the whole we found it easy to be reconciled to 
our stay in the city. Passing up the Hudson, 
I came near getting myself into trouble by re- 
monstrating with the captain for racing with 
another boat, and the boats at one time came 
near colliding. I told them that if the racing 
was not stopped, I would put the law to them 
if I ever reached the shore. 

I was also a delegate to General Conference, 
in Conneaut, Ohio, and was one of the coun- 
cil that examined Dr. Housley for ordination. 
Dr. Housley w r as all right in doctrine, but in 
practice he was a slave-holder, and this was 
the reason why he was refused ordination 
among us. He was like the man who told his 
experience for baptism, and would have been 



72 MEMOIR OF 

received, but in his practice he would steal 
chickens. 



CHAPTER IX. 



About this time the itinerancy gave place to 
the pastorate, and many of our ministers 
changed their mode of life from the traveling 
to the settled ministry ; and two brethren, Ezra 
Stevens and Ray Thompson, came to Windsor 
to give me a call to preach with the church in 
Gardiner, at a salary of two hundred and fifty 
dollars. I was informed that the church was 
unable to pay more, as the house they wor- 
shiped in was built and owned by Richard 
Clay, a man of reputed wealth, and favoring 
the sentiments of our people. He was a 
brother of Rev. H. Clav, of Buxton. I accord- 
ingly made arrangements and moved my fam- 
ily there in the spring of 1844. 

Here I found myself and family, then con- 
sisting of myself, wife and youngest son, sur- 
rounded by a very kind and loving company 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 73 

of brethren and sisters ; and the people of the 
place were courteous and kind. I visited and 
prayed in various families, attended prayer 
meetings during the week, having but little 
time for study or preparation for the Sabbath ; 
yet at times was much assisted and felt that 
God was with me. Some revival and some 
few additions to the church by baptism and 
otherwise, encouraged us to labor on. Only 
about six months had passed, when my wife, 
who had been in feeble health for a number of 
years, was confined to the house with a fever. 
Here I met the severest trial of my life thus 
far ; my wife sick at home, and our sori sick 
with the same fever, in a neighboring house ; 
the neighbor kindly taking home the sick boy, 
so that he would be better cared for than he 
could possibly be in the same tenement with 
his sick mother. I felt for a time that my tri- 
als were too severe for humanity to bear, as I 
stood by the sick wife till into the late hours 
of night, and then went to the neighbor to 
see how the boy was. But in this dark hour, 
I felt the strength of that divine arm on w r hich 
I had learned to lean in the days of prosperity. 
This state of things lasted about four weeks, 
when my wife closed the scenes of her earth- 
life, and, I firmly believe, went to her rest in 



74 MEMOIR OF 

heaven. Just before she passed away, being 
perfectly sensible, she disposed of her things 
and made arrangements for her funeral, choos- 
ing a man to preach, Rev. Hermon Stenson, 
and then said, "John, I wish I could know 
how you feel." I replied that it would be an im- 
possibility for me to tell her how I felt, but she 
must judge of my feelings by what I had 
done. She replied, " You have done well." 
This to me was a great satisfaction. At the 
conclusion of this interview, she remarked, 
" There is one thing more, if it would not be 
asking too much of you. I should be glad to 
be buried in the grave-yard at Limerick, near 
my old grandfather Leavitt." I remarked, 
" This shall be done if you wish it;" but she 
said, "Won't it be too costly?" I said, "If it 
is your wish, the cost will not prevent, I will 
have you put in a tomb till winter, and then 
you shall be carried to Limerick for final buri- 
al." " All right," she remarked, " and now 
if I could see my children, I could die in 
peace." She closed with this remark: "John, 
be faithful in preaching the gospel till life 
closes," The boy was then brought from his 
sick-room, and she gave her parting blessing 
to him, uttered a short prayer for the absent 
one, and the scene closed. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 75 

This was a solemn scene, and as I turned 
away from the room, the world looked to me 
more like a wilderness than ever before. But 
friends gathered around me, and every effort 
was made that could be to lighten my sorrows 
and assuage my grief. Long shall I remem- 
ber the band of loving hearts that seemed to 
vie with each other in lightening the burtlens 
that so suddenly came upon me. In four 
weeks' time, my wife sickened and died, and 
I had become a boarder in the same tenement 
with a man and his wife, who had boarded 
with us. My son went to his school, and from 
that to teaching, and I went on in my work 
alone, only I felt that the Lord did not for- 
sake me. When winter came, I fulfilled my 
promise, and had the remains of my wife car- 
ried to Limerick and buried as she requested. 
I followed the coffin some seventy miles, and 
there met my eldest son, C. A. Stevens, who 
was teaching in Cohoes, N. Y., and came 
to Maine to attend the final interment of 
the mother he loved. A sermon was preach- 
ed by Rev. Zechariah Jordan, from the text, 
" Even so them that sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him." I occupied a room with my 
son that night, and in the early morning I 
missed him from the bed, and when he came, 



*j6 MEMOIR OF 

he told me that he had been to the grave of 
his mother to kneel and pray for himself. In 
the morning we parted ; he went back to his 
school in N. Y., and I to my field of labor in 
the city of Gardiner. 

I labored here for about two years, — had 
some success, and during the time a meeting- 
house was built. I helped dig the trench and 
haul the stone for the foundation, with my own 
hands, and out of a salary of two hundred and 
fifty dollars, I managed to pay my bills, and 
gave twenty-five dollars towards building the 
house. The meeting-house being done and 
paid for, I told the brethren that it was best 
for them to get another minister, and I would 
seek a field elsewhere. Accordingly, arrange- 
ments were made for Rev. J, L. K. Staples, 
who then preached in Bath, to take my place, 
and for me to take his. 

Many incidents of interest took place during 
my labors in Gardiner. In several instances, 
I collected money for others more needy than 
myself, as I thought. Brother Daniel Jack- 
son, because of infirmity, wished to go South. 
I visited a number of churches and solicited 
aid for him, and succeeded in obtaining money 
to bear his expenses on his journey, which 
was thankfully received. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 77 

Brother Thomas Tyler, who was often 
brought into straight places on account of 
want, was remembered in my efforts to do 
good, and I frequently made an effort in his 
behalf, and had the satisfaction of carrying to 
his family the comforts of life, while he was 
faithfully preaching the gospel of the blessed 
God. 



CHAPTER X. 



I closed my pastorate of two years in Gardi- 
ner, leaving the church in harmony and love, 
and with a good meeting-house ; and went to 
Bath to take charge of a weak interest in that 
city, without a place of worship except the 
city hall. As usual, I nerved myself to the 
task before me, preaching in the city hall on 
the Sabbath, and attending prayer-meetings 
and visiting during the week. I felt very 
lonely, being only a boarder in the family of 
Capt. Swanton, one of the leading members of 
my church, a good man with a kind and gen- 
erous wife and family. 



78 MEMOIR OF 

I remained in this city some few months, 
a lone boarder, and although every attention 
was paid to my wants, I could not shake off 
the loneliness of my situation ; and I resolved, 
notwithstanding former resolutions, to seek for 
one to share with me the joys and sorrows in- 
cident to life. Nearly two years had passed 
since I had lost the companion of my youth, 
and I felt that there was one and only one in 
all the valuable acquaintances I had whom I 
could invite to take this responsibility, and this 
was a lady member of the church in Gardiner, 
where I had spent the last two years, and an 
intimate acquaintance of my former wife. I 
accordingly pressed my suit, obtained a favor- 
able response, and on Sabbath, May 23d, 
1847, I was married to Miss Agnes Amee, of 
Gardiner, Me., by the Rev. J. L. K. Staples, 
who preached in the church where I had been 
settled. Success and defeat have attended my 
feeble efforts since, but in all the varied chang- 
es of sorrows and joys, she has ever been 
faithful to her trust, an agreeable companion 
and true helpmate ; and now in my old age 
and infirmities, devotes her life to my happi- 
ness and interests. She is some eighteen 
years younger than I, but is always happy in 
seeing my happiness augmented. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS, 79 

I remained at Bath some four years, and 
preached in the city hall, — had meetings fre- 
quently in the surrounding neighborhoods, 
and occasionally we were blessed with revival 
interests, baptisms and additions to the church. 
After my second marriage we continued to 
board with Captain Swanton's family, till I 
had built a cottage on Green Street, when we 
moved into our new house. Here we enjoyed 
ourselves as well, I think, as is the common lot 
of mortals. Divine favor was evidently ours, 
and we labored in hope. I sometimes 
found myself in straight places, on account of 
my radical views on the temperance and anti- 
slavery questions that then agitated the com- 
munity. We kept one of the depots on the 
underground railroad, and this brought us 
some callers ; but our faith told us that God 
would help us, and he did. 

At one time I was hard pushed by the lov- 
ers of rum for publishing an article in the 
temperance paper at Gardiner, the " Cold 
Water Fountain," at which the rumsellers took 
exceptions, and they were about to bring me 
before the court. I was feeling somewhat sad, 
as I was poor and poorly able to meet the ex- 
pense of litigation. As I was walking the 
street one day and pondering upon the situa- 



80 MEMOIR OF 

tion, I was called into the counting room of J. 
B. S wanton, Esq., and questioned as to my 
means of defense. I informed him ; and then 
he said, " Whenever you need money to de- 
fend yourself in this suit, I am able and my 
money is at your call to any amount you may 
need." I thanked him, and as I left the office 
I felt assured of victory, for I had God and J. 
B. Sw r anton's purse to help me. When Judge 
Groton and the rumsellers found that I had a 
backer in the person of Mr. S wanton, the ac- 
tion was quashed, and this was the last of it- 
It was while I was settled in Bath, that I 
was called upon to advise in a family trouble 
between Rev. J, L. K. Staples and wife. He 
was then settled as pastor at Parker's Head, 
some ten miles below me. I gave such advice 
as I thought necessary, but it failed to effect a 
reconciliation. The result was, a council of 
ministers was called, and he was tried for un- 
christian conduct in his family, found guilty 
and his credentials demanded. This so disaf- 
fected a leading family in the church at Bath, 
that I ultimately found it best to resign my 
pastorate here. Staples proved the truthful- 
ness of my position by absconding with the 
only daughter of the family so offended with 
me. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 8 1 

I was chosen a member of the General Con- 
ference, to be held in Providence, R. I., in 
1850. The Conference was in session, when 
the fugitive slave law was passed by Congress 
and immediately resolved itself into a conven- 
tion to examine the provisions of the bill. 

Speeches were made by Revs. Martin Che- 
ney, C. Phinney, E. Noyes, J. Stevens and 
others, to the effect that the bill was in open 
violation of our chartered rights as citizens of 
a free republic, contrary to the principles of 
Christianity, and that the only obedience, we, 
as Christian citizens, would ever render to its 
behests, should be the suffering of its penal- 
ties. When I arrived home, the politicians of 
Bath set upon me in a severe manner for the 
position I had taken, but I frankly avowed my 
sentiments, and told them I should harbor any 
and every fugitive slave that came to my house 
for aid or shelter ; and if they were disposed 
to enforce the law against me, I should peace- 
fully suffer its penalties, I justified myself in 
this position on the ground that the law was 
contrary to the law of God, and I should obey 
God rather than man. I claimed that I had 
the example of all the martyrs from Abel 
down to Smithfield and the gallows in Boston, 
when Mary Dyer paid the extreme penalty of 



82 MEMOIR OF 

a wicked law, by rendering obedience to a di- 
vine one. 

The sentiments of the convention were 
adopted by the General Conference and the 
denomination generally, and this strengthened 
public opinion and aided the downfall of slav- 
ery. My letter of resignation was received by 
the church, and a letter of recommendation 
given me, and I took leave of a band of breth- 
ren and sisters that were made dear to me in 
the ties of Christian love. 



CHAPTER XL 

About this time I received a call from a few 
Freewill Baptist brethren in Augusta, Me. On 
investigation, I found a few members of 
the church gathered in that city, by Rev. Silas 
Curtis, some eight years before, and to whom 
he preached for a term of years in the old 
court house. Brother John M. Plummer and 
family, brother Alvin Fogg and family, and a 
few others, were very desirous , that 1 should 



REV. JOHN STEVENS, 83* 

come and make an effort to gather the scat- 
tered sheep of the fold. Accordingly I enter- 
ed the field, although it had a very uninviting 
appearance at the time. They could offer me 
but two hundred and fifty dollars as a salary, 
and then some hoped that the Home Mission 
Society would do something to assist me. Our 
first meeting gave us encouragement, and it. 
was soon apparent that the time for an effort 
had come. We soon obtained Darby hall for 
our place of worship, and I removed my fami- 
ly and settled in the place. At our first Sab- 
bath-school in Darby hall, we had, superin- 
tendent, teachers and scholars, nine all told, 
and up three flights of stairs, fifty-two stairs in 
all. This was the beginning of the present 
Freewill Baptist church in Augusta. I wrote 
a letter to Rev. Silas Curtis, then chairman of 
the Home Mission Board, stating our condition 
and prospects, and saying if the Board would 
help me stand there for a short time, I would, 
with God's help, cut a niche in that rock for 
some faithful minister to stand in through the 
rest of time. The Board made a favorable re- 
sponse, and for a time I was much blessed in 
my feeble efforts to preach the gospel and lead 
souls to Christ, 

At first many of the citizens and some of 



84 MEMOIR OF 

our ministers were quite doubtful of our suc- 
cess. Rev. Mr. Judd, a minister in the place, 
had the honesty to tell me that he thought 
there was no call for any effort in the place, 
and that there was not room for me or for a 
Freewill Baptist church in Augusta, I asked 
him if he knew how many non-church goers 
there were in the city. He told me that he 
did not. I showed him the number of inhabit- 
ants, — the number of church goers, and that 
there were from twelve to fourteen thousand 
left out. In taking this view of the matter, he 
readily changed his mind and gave me a new 
Bible for my pulpit. 

In six months our Sabbath-school numbered 
one hundred and twenty, with an increase of 
the congregation, so that our hall, seating 
about three hundred, was usually well filled, 
and additions to the church by baptisnf and 
letter, until its numbers and moral force were 
respected in the city. I received very kind 
and courteous treatment from the ministers and 
members of the other churches in the place, 
and it was manifest that we were doing a good 
work. 

I had served the church in the capacity of 
pastor not quite two years, when the Rev. O. 
B. Cheney took charge as pastor, and by his 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. -85 

and the faithful labors of his successors, a 
house of worship was built, and the church 
and parish found themselves able and willing 
to give a comfortable support to the ox that 
treadeth out the corn. 

I omitted one item, which I deem worth}' of 
note, that took place while I was stationed at 
Gardiner. A good brother came after me to 
go to South China, saying that a union meet- 
ing which was appointed by the Freewill Bap- 
tists, Methodists and C. Baptists, had been dis- 
turbed and broken up by two men by the name 
of Brown and Robbins, and that the ministers 
and brethren in attendance were very desirous 
that I should come to their assistance. I ac- 
cordingly gave out an appointment to preach 
the next evening. When I arrived in the 
place, I found the people and the ministers in 
much excitement, not knowing what was best 
to be done. The. meeting had again been 
broken up, and the congregation frightened 
out of doors,— -up street and down street, while 
those two men shouted and laughed. I told 
them that the most sacred rights of American 
citizens were in jeopardy by the conduct of 
these men, and if they would stand true, I 
w r ould make an example of them if they dis- 
turbed the meeting that evening. They put 



86 MEMOIR OF 

the meeting into my hands, the evening came, 
the house was full, and I announced the order 
of the meeting, and said that if the rules of the 
meeting were violated, I should assuredly try 
the strength of law, and see whether our 
rights to worship God according to the dictates 
of conscience were to be protected or not. 

I then announced my text, and in a dis- 
course of forty or fifty minutes, I was inter- 
rupted thirty times by these two men. I had 
employed a man to mark the disturbers, and 
informed the people at the close of the service 
that there would be a meeting the next day at 
half-past ten o'clock, and if Mr, Brown and 
Mr. Robbins would come into that meeting 
and confess their wrongs and promise to make 
no more disturbance, it should all be well ; if 
they did not come and make confession and 
promise, I should put them into the hands of 
the law. They failed to put in an appearance 
the next day. I closed the meeting, and went 
to Augusta in the afternoon and entered com- 
plaint, — an officer was sent to China, and the 
two men brought to Augusta and lodged in 
jail, Brown obtained bail, and went home the 
next day ; but Robbins refused to get bail, and 
so laid in jail some six weeks, until court sat, 
and then they had their trial, — paid their cost, 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 87 

and were put under bonds for future good con- 
duct, and the meetings there have never been 
disturbed since. This is the only time that I 
ever invoked the assistance of law, and I have 
never had any compunctions for that which 
was done for the good of the community and 
not for myself. 

At another time I was called to go to Liber- 
ty village, to assist a struggling church whose 
meetings had been disturbed by those who 
called themselves Come-outers. They were 
led by one Start, who was a graduate at Ban- 
gor Theological Seminary, and had been li- 
censed to preach, I had formerly made his 
acquaintance, and thought him a promising 
young man ; but he espoused the advent doc- 
trine, and as the predictions of the end of the 
world did not come at that time, he went, with 
many others, into come-outism, and opposed 
all, and especially all ministers who did not 
agree with him. 

I went with brother Spring, and told the 
friends that I would go to their meeting that 
evening, as the best thing to be done in the 
present crisis. We went and sat near the door 
of the hall. Some were on their knees in an 
attitude of prayer, and others exhorting as they 
sat on their seats. Others lay* their length on 



88 MEMOIR OF 

the floor, laughing, Soon it was discovered 
that I was in the meeting, and then almost the 
entire attention of the leaders was directed to 
me. Utterances like these were heard thick 
and fast, by both men and women : " Lord, 
drive that decent devil out doors." " You 
church minister, you hen hawk of hell, what 
are you here for?" The whole exercise was 
turned in this direction, and the leaders of the 
meeting spent their whole endeavors to drive 
me out, but did not succeed, I stayed until 
the meeting closed, and then retired, feeling 
nothing but a pity in my heart for the deluded 
devotees of fanaticism ; and said to my friends 
that the. best and only thing I could do for 
them, was to go to the come-out meeting and 
let them fight me, and they would kill them- 
selves. I had preached in the place years be- 
fore and the people knew me. Come-outism 
spent its fury on me, — the leaders closed their 
protracted meeting and left the place. The 
churches again resumed their meetings of reg- 
ular worship, and the people became attentive 
again to the ordinances of the gospel. 

Another incident, showing the constancy of 
the faith of assurance. While I was in Wind- 
sor I came home one day, and my wife said, 
"We have got a, letter from the West, and 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 89 

your mother is very sick if Dot now dead.'' 
"Ah/' I said 5 "she is not dead, and she can 
not die till she is baptized." "What a strange 
man you are," she said, "you do not know but 
she is dead;" yet I reiterated, "My mother 
can not die till she is baptized." Soon after 
this I received a letter from my brother Theo- 
dore, then preaching in Acton, informing me 
that I must meet him in Limington, and that 
he and I were to baptize our father and moth- 
er. I hastened to inform him that I would 
meet him. on a certain Sabbath, and in the 
providence of God w r e were permitted to meet 
on the appointed day at the Methodist church ; 
then, standing near the creek, and in the pres- 
ence of a multitude of people, we all joined 
hands and walked into the stream, and I bap- 
tized our father, and he our mother. This was 
a glorious day to us, and especially to me, as 
it was the entire fulfillment of the vision I had 
some eight years before. Never had my faith. 
even wavered for the whole eight years that 
the vision had been fulfilling. 



gO MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XII. 

I now take up the thread of my experience 
at Augusta. I had received a call to go to 
Wayne village and take charge of a small in- 
terest, with the promise of a good support, al- 
though the salary specified was small. Hav- 
ing resigned my little charge to the care of 
. brother Cheney, and settled my bills, I left the 
place and our good friends there, with three 
dollars in my pocket, and went to Wayne vil- 
lage, where we were cordially received, and 
where we spent some of the most happy years 
of life. My pastorate lasted some three years. 
The Baptists and Methodists seemed to vie 
with each other in trying to make our stay in 
the place pleasant and prosperous. God bless 
those Christian brethren, has been my constant 
prayer. This feeling was entirely reciproca- 
ted ; for after I had been absent for about a 
year, I went back to spend a Sabbath, and the 
Baptist aiyi Methodist meetings were dismissed 
by their pastors, and all came to the Freewill 
Baptist house to hear me preach. This was a 
compliment that I was not looking for, and 
felt that I had no right to expect. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 9 1 

The years of our toil in Wayne resulted in 
some conversions and additions to the church. 
I was assisted in my labors by Rev. B. L. 
Lombard, a local preacher belonging to the 
church. I have loved brother and sister Lom- 
bard for their Christian honesty and faithful- 
ness in Christ. Many others are remembered 
by us as among the faithful in the Lord's 
house, among whom were Capt, Gardiner and 
wife, brother and sister Gott, brother and sister 
Berry, Gardiner Foss of Leeds, Dea. Hutchin- 
son and wife of Fayette, who used to ride four 
miles or more to meeting, Z. B. Reed, Esq., 
and wife ; and the converts I had baptized were 
especially dear to us. But we thought it duty 
to leave, though it is one of the bitterest items 
of my experience to leave a flock that I had 
labored with, loved and cherished, in not 
' knowing who would go in and out before them ; 
and in this case it was exceedingly painful. 
But I committed them to God and the word of 
his grace. We had an auction and sold the 
most of our furniture, and the rest we gave to 
a brother Hammon, a member of the church, 
who was poor. We left Wayne in good union, 
a good congregation and meeting-house free 
from debt. Adversity soon fell upon them ; 
removals by death and otherwise, and divisions 



92 MEMOIR OF 

in the church, well nigh obliterated the socie- 
ty, and the meeting-house is now used as a 
school-house. 

I had, by invitation, visited several places ; 
Portsmouth, N, H., Amesbury, Mass., but for 
some reason no further relation was sought, 
and I guess the feeling was mutual ; so it 
seemed that Doughty's Falls, in North Ber- 
wick, was to be the place of our 1 abor for a 
term of years. We soon found ourselves set- 
tled in the parsonage at North Berwick among 
a kind-hearted people. Our congregation was 
usually quite large, as there was then no other 
meeting in the village. It was composed of 
persons of various beliefs, in matters of politics 
and religion. Having been accustomed to ut- 
ter in the pulpit what I believed to be true in 
religion, and sound in morals in all political , 
action, it was not strange that some of my 
hearers should dissent, and some were offend- 
ed. It being at a time when the people, to a 
great extent, were led by rum-loving and lib- 
erty-hating politicians, and some of the lead- 
ers of these interests were members of my con- 
gregation ; hence it is not strange that an ef- 
fort was made to neutralize my influence to 
some extent ; yet to the praise of God be it 
*said, the church, as a general thing stood by 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 93 

me, and I did not shun to declare the whole 
counsel of God as I understood it. 

I held meetings in several neighborhoods, 
and on the whole felt that the divine presence 
was with me, although but little revival influ- 
ence was experienced during the years of my 
labor there. I left the church in good union, 
and in working order, and my brother that 
followed me soon had additions by baptism and 
otherwise. We had many warm friends in 
and out of the church, particularly in the So- 
ciety of Friends, and we have cherished a 
grateful feeling towards them unto this day. 

One Sabbath, in the morning prayer', I al- 
luded to the prisoners in Kansas (Robinson 
and others) ] who were then in prison for at- 
. tempting to defend the State against the en- 
croachments of the slave power, and w r hile I 
was in prayer for them, one of our leading 
men left his pew and the house. This some- 
what alarmed some of the brethren, and they 
came to me after service with considerable 
feeling that Col. H. should leave. I very 
calmly remarked, " Yes, there was a kind, 
anciently, that went not out but by prayer and 
fasting ; no strange thing for devils to run 
when Christians pray." 

At another time, I was attacked in the post- 



94 MEMOIR OF 

office b} r a young lawyer, for some ungram- 
matical utterance on the preceding Sabbath. 
I knew his history, and I knew that it was not 
that he cared so much for the utterance, as he 
did for the sentiment expressed, I very calm- 
ly replied, 

You, sir, have the advantage of me in early educational 
facilities, and if my father had been kept in public office 
so that he could have educated his sons with public mon- 
ey, I could have had an early education as well as you ; 
and no man ought to say what should be preached in the 
pulpit until he had paid his pew rent, at least ; and then it 
would be of no use for him or any other man to dictate 
what shall or what shall not be preached in a pulpit that I 
was called to occupy. I came into York county to bore 
temperance holes into it, to let the dark out, and I pro- 
* pose to do it. 

•i 

This was so effectually done in a few years, 
that the county was carried by a decided ma- 
jority for temperance and liberty. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The time had now come when my thoughts 
went out in search of another field, where I 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 95 

could see more fruit of my labors. The church 
at Wells Branch was without a pastor, and, 
receiving a unanimous call, I moved my fami- 
ly there, and was again settled in the parson- 
age, surrounded by a generous and kind-heart- 
ed people. With this people I labored some 
three years, saw some conversions, baptisms, 
and additions to the church, until the year 
1859, w hen I left. As a people, they seemed 
intent on looking after the temporal w r ants of 
their minister. It was here I received my 
largest donation. The last that the}/ - made 
me, they left for our benefit, outside of the sal- 
ary, one hundred and fourteen dollars, mostly 
cash, and the uniform kindness of the people 
was in keeping with their liberality on this oc- 
casion. 

It was during my stay in Wells that I was 
appointed to speak on the subject of education, 
at our anniversaries in Lowell, Mass., in the 
autumn of 1859. The position assigned me 
was the middle speech, between two profess- 
ors, Rev. I. D. Stewart of New 'Hampton, and 
Rev. H. E.Whipple of Hillsdale College. I 
could not give even an outline of the speeches 
that preceded and succeeded me, as I was so 
absorbed in thought in regard to my own po- 
sition, knowing as I did that I belonged to the 



96 MEMOIR OF 

class of uneducated men. while they both were 
men of thorough education and culture. At 
that time it was argued by many that educated 
and uneducated men in the ministry could not 
work together harmoniously. I had prepared 
the outlines of my speech so as to show that 
there should be no , friction between the two 
elements. When I was called to speak, all 
embarrassment left me for the time being, and 
my remarks were substantially as follows : 

Brother Chairman:— i never felt more confident of 
success in all my life. I am to make a speech in the in- 
terest of education, and if 1 succeed in making a decent 
effort, it will show what self-culture will do for a man that 
has not had the advantages of the schools ; *and I am 
placed here between my two learned brethren, a fossil re- 
main of a ministry that has well nigh passed away. If I 
am dumb-founded and can say nothing to the point, it will 
of course show the need of an education. So, which ever 
way it may turn with me, the cause is sure to be benefited. 
["Yankee turn, that;" said a Western member, in an un- 
dertone.] 

There should be no friction between the two classes 
amongst us. 

1st. From the'fact that God designed his ministry to 
meet the varied wants of the world, both the learned and 
unlearned, and both have the same end in view, the sal- 
vation of those to whom they preach ; and so far as the 
end is reached by the efforts of both, we should labor in 
harmony and love. 

2d. Both classes are liable to, and do make mistakes. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 97 

The unlearned are adepts in some things, while the learn- 
ed are not posted in all matters ; hence we see mistakes on 
both sides. Why should one class find fault with the oth- 
er? Each can criticise the other on some points, and I 
will first instance some mistakes made by illiterate men, — 
men who, if we judge them by the fruits they bear, were 
sincere and useful in their endeavors to do work for the 
Master. A man of this class arose in a school-house pul- 
pit, with the New Testament in his hand wrong end up, 
and announced his text in the backside of Job. This man 
could not read, and yet I heard him offer a prayer that 
reached the heart of a haughty young man, who was sound- 
ly converted, and became an efficient minister of the gos- 
pel. 

Another instance was this : A very good man, and 
quite successful in his ministry in winning souls to Christ, 
arose in his pulpit and announced his text in Plasims. A 
brother in the desk with him said, in a low tone of voice, 
* 'Psalms, brother. 1 ' Turning around, he said, "P-S-A-L- 
M-S. If that don't spell Plasims, I don't know what it does 
spell," and went on with his discourse. That brother is 
now before me in this congregation, and has been very 
successful in his labors to save souls. 

Some mistakes have been made by the educated class. 
A good minister, and said to be one of our best pastors, 
from your "schools, was preaching at one of our Yearly 
Meetings recently, and I heard him quote Jeffries as one 
of the martyrs. He was the judge that sat upon the bench 
when Richard Baxter was fined five hundred marks and 
imprisoned for writing a paraphase on the New Testa- 
ment, and now by a learned minister he is quoted as 
among the martyrs. Who knows but two hundred years 
hence, I may be quoted among the heroes? 

Another incident where an educated man was saved by 



98 MEMOIR OF 

the uneducated, was this : History says that in king 
James's day, an English barrister, highly educated in legal 
lore, ran out his sign on one of the streets of London with 
this inscription : "All questions answered here." The king 
saw it and was displeased ; and entering the office and ad- 
dressing the lawyer, said, "Did you not know that I al- 
lowed no man in my dominion but myself, to make such 
high pretensions as to answer all questions ? I will ask 
you three questions, and if you do not answer them satis- 
factorily before to-morrow's sun goes down, I will take off 
your head. My questions are, 1, How many baskets of 
earth in that hill yonder? 2, What am I, your king, 
worth? 3, What am I thinking about?" 

The barrister, with all his learning, became very gloomy 
and sad ; for he could see no way of saving his life. His 
clown, or office boy, saw that his master was in deep 
trouble, and inquired the cause and was told. 

The office boy was one of those who think more than 
they read, while the lawyer was one who read more than 
he thought; so the boy said, " If you will dress me in 
your costume, I will go in before the king in your stead, 
and if I don't answer the questions satisfactory, he may 
take my head off." The lawyer was very willing, as law- 
yers generally are, to shift his costume, to get rid of re- 
sponsibility. He dressed his clown in his own habit, and 
sent him to the king. He bowed to his Majesty, saying, 
" I have come to answer those questions, your Majesty." 

" Well, how many baskets of earth in that hill yonder?" 

" That, your Majesty will at once perceive, depends on 
the bigness of the baskets. If the basket is as big as the 
hill, there is one. If it is half as big, there are two, and so 
on." 

"Really, that is quite satisfactory," said the king. 

"What am I, your king, worth?" Answer, "Judas Is- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 99 

cariot sold his king for thirty pieces of silver ; at the same 
ratio, I should think you might be worth two.''- So the 
king, not having lost all sense of his own meanness, called 
the answer satisfactory. "But," said the king, "here is 
my third question : What am I thinking about?" 

The clown replied, " You are thinking that I am the 
lawyer, but I am not, I am only his clown." It is said, 
this so pleased the king, that both clown and lawyer were 
discharged. 

Another instance where book learning was mastered by 
an unlettered man : An educated minister had a slave 
named Sam, also a licensed preacher among the slaves. 
The learned man said, " Sam, you can't preach ; you don't 
know Greek and Latin." "I knows it, massa. Tse a 
poor, ignorant slave, yet I preach as well as I can." A 
few days after this, the learned man made a call on one of 
his parishioners, and he gave him a nice young cow, and 
the animal was driven to his house by the slave of the 
donor. Then the man of letters again took occasion to 
lecture Sam on his ignorance, and consequent want of 
ability to preach the gospel, and to get his living in that 

way. He said, " Sam, look, see what Mr. has given 

me ; made me a present of this nice young cow, because I 
can preach. I understand Greek and Latin, and so I can 
live, Sam, but you donH know Greek and Latin, Sam, and 
I advise you to leave it off." Sam ran to the cow, opened 
her mouth, and looking into it, burst out in laughter. 
" Yes, massa, nice young cow." " Why," says the mas- 
ter, " Sam, what are you laughing at?" "Nice young 
cow, massa. She so old she got no upper teef ; you come 
and see for yourself, massa ;" and he opened her mouth 
for the master to see. "A rascal," he exclaimed, "go 
drive that cow back." So the cow was driven back. The 
owner, thinking that some prank had been put upon the 



IOO MEMOIR OF 

minister, took the cow back to him, and the minister 
, seemed quite indignant that he should pass that animal off 
for a young cow. After an explanation, the learned minis- 
ter became quite reconciled, and called for Sam, who had 
played the joke upon him. Sam said, " Ah, massa, you 
say you know ebery ting ; you know Greek and Latin, but 
you didn't know that a cow- had no upper teef." [Convul- 
sive laughter.] 

There is one other class of the learned professions which 
I desire to mention,— the doctors ; and I would close by 
saying that it is quite evident that they are liable to mis- 
takes, and as an evidence we might look at the number 
and extent of our grave-yards ; but we seldom know one to 
make the sad mistake of eating his own medicine. 

So I would here rest my call, feeling that I have shown 
sufficient cause why there should be no friction between 
the learned and unlearned, but that both should labor in 
harmony to the end that the world might be made better. 

The manifestations of applause that greeted 
me at the close of my remarks, showed that 
the speech was accepted by the audience quite 
generally. I was then followed by the other 
professor, in a brief speech that told on the 
same side of the question ; in favor of educa- 
tion. 

The General Conference and the Anniver- 
saries closed with much unanimity and a gen- 
eral good feeling, and we bade adieu to the 
friends in Lowell with not a little regret, es- 
pecially our kind hostess, Mrs. Stanwood, 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. IOI 

who had entertained us through the meeting 
with great kindness, and reached our home in 
Wells , Me., the same evening. The excite- 
ment and fatigue of the week or more, had 
well nigh exhausted my strength, and without 
supper I retired, and fell into a troubled 
sleep, and did not awake till it was nearly sun- 
rise. I had risen from my bed, was crossing 
the room, and fell in a fit of apoplexy. My 
faithful wife was soon at my side and aided me 
to the bed, and I soon lost all consciousness 
and remained so for some time. I then felt that 
I was well nigh across the river. The good- 
ness of God, the faithful attention of my wife, 
and the skill of Drs. Ross and Smart, soon en- 
abled me to rally somewhat, and with the ex- 
ception of a slight shock a few days later, I 
continued to grow better, so that I was able to 
walk about. During my illness, it was sup- 
posed that I could not survive the night, and 
my wife sent a telegram to my brother Theo- 
dore, then living near Great Falls, N. H., and 
he came to see me that night. Weak as I 
was, I knew his step when he entered the 
room, and in a whisper he said, " John, how 
is it with you now, as we suppose you are dy- 
ing?" And, indeed, I did think that I was fast 
sinking in death ; but I could whisper back the 



102 MEMOIR OF 

answer to my brother, " It is all right down 
here." Oh, the peace of that hour, and that 
peace was the guest of my soul w r hen I thought 
I was dying ; yet it pleased God to bring me 
back to life's activities again, for some reason 
best known in the divine arrangement. For 
some two months I was unable to attend to 
regular duty, but since then, with the excep- 
tion of ill turns, have been quite active in the 
duties of life, both religious and temporal. 

I remained in Wells some six or eight 
months after recovering from my illness, sup- 
plying the place of a more active and efficient 
minister as best I could, and then resigned my 
charge. 

It was while stationed there that we were all 
made very sad by an accident at Bates Col- 
lege. Brother Theodore Wells's eldest son fell 
from a swing and was killed, and brought 
home to be interred. The funeral was a very 
impressive scene, and the occurrence spread a 
gloom over all, and especially the young peo- 
ple in the parish. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. IO3 



CHAPTER XIV. 



I now had a call to supply the pulpit in 
Biddeford, where brother Bathrick was preach- 
ing, while he went to New York on a visit to 
his friends. I accepted the call, and the first 
Sabbath the congregation was very small, on- 
ly forty-two persons in attendance, and the 
Sabbath-school numbered forty, all told. As I 
had engaged to supply the pulpit during the 
absence of brother B., I notified the congrega- 
tion that there would be preaching every Sab- 
bath until his return. This seemed quite satis- 
factory, and the next Sabbath the increase in 
the congregation was quite encouraging, and 
the evening meeting was quite interesting. 
After two months or more, news from brother 
Bathrick announcing his return as doubtful, 
the church gave me a unanimous call to move 
into the city and become their pastor. 

Biddeford had become, in the estimation of 
ministers, a hard field, and I was frequently 
told that if I attempted it as a pastorate, I 
should for once make a failure. Such was the 
reputation of the place as fickle and uncertain, 
that most ministers were unwilling to risk an 



104 MEMOIR OF 

effort to build up a Freewill Baptist society in 
the place, 

I told them that if the work was ever done, it 
must be done soon ; and as I was getting to be 
old, it would not be so bad for me to make a 
failure as it would be for a younger man. I 
believed it was the will of God that I should 
make the trial, and leave the result with the 
righteous Disposer of all events. Accordingly, 
preparation was made and we moved into Bid- 
deford on the last day of June, i860. We oc- 
cupied the tenement in the house of Alvin 
Gove, while he was in California. The fami- 
ly, Mrs. Gove and her children, were very 
congenial, and we made it our home in the 
house with them till we bought the lot and 
built the house we now live in. 

The ministers of other churches received me 
to their fellowship and confidence. Tenney of 
the Pavillion, Packard of the second Congre-* 
gationalist, Hubbard of the Baptist, Abbot of 
the Methodist, and Evans of the Episcopal 
church, all seemed to vie with each other in 
their cordial greeting and frank confessions of 
fellowship and union with me, as a co-laborer 
in the vineyard of the Master. While I thus 
had the aid of these good men, and a con- 
sciousness of a faithful discharge of my duty, 



REV. JOHN STEVENS, IO5 

I sometimes called out the hottest fire of the 
enemies of reform. Open opposition and pri- 
vate scheming, with threats of personal vio- 
lence by anonymous letters, made up of lan- 
guage too vulgar and obscene to appear in 
print, were addressed to me, declaring what 
would inevitably be the result of my persist- 
ence in publicly denouncing the pro-slavery, 
rum drinking and rum selling practices of men ; 
thus evidently thinking to spike my guns or 
drive me into silence. It* was quite evident 
that the enemies of reform had mistaken their 
man. I went into a public meeting at the 
Methodist church, and when called Upon to 
speak, I said, "If I say anything to-night, it 
will be in reference to a letter I have recently 
received through the post-office, warning me 
to desist in meddling with other men's busi- 
ness, rum selling, &c, or I should suffer per- 
sonal violence at their hands/' After calling 
attention to the threat, I said, " I suppose that 
the rum seller who wrote that letter is here to- 
night, or some one is here to report to him 
what I say. My answer to him is this if he 
is here, or to his reporter : you go back and 
tell him I never walk out except in the compa- 
ny of two good friends ; if he sees fit to attack 
me in their presence, the responsibility is on 



I06 MEMOIR OF 

him and not on me. And if he wants to know 
who these friends are, I will tell him. One is 
the Lord from above, and the other is this 
cane (holding up the cane at the same time) , 

This for a time seemed to silence opposition, 
but did not remove enmity. My family be- 
came alarmed for my safety when I was out in 
the evening, and the brethren of my church 
would sometimes insist on seeing me home 
from the evening meetings, lest I should be at- 
tacked on the street. 

In the midst of all this our meetings increas- 
ed in numbers and interest, and the awakening 
power of God was evidently with us. The 
members of the church came into line, and 
there was evidently a spirit of earnest prayer. 
One evening at the prayer meeting in the ves- 
try, a young lady, known only by a few, vol- 
untarily arose and said : "Friends, I am not a 
Christian, but I want the prayers of these 
Christians that I may become one ;" and as 
she said this, she kneeled in prayer for herself, 
and others united with her, and it was as the 
house of God and the gate of heaven to us. 
This was the beginning of a glorious revival of 
religion, and many were the subjects of re- 
deeming grace and became efficient helpers 
in the cause of Christ. .We subsequently 



KEV. JOHN STEVENS. IO7 

learned that the young lady was in the mill, 
and that her name was Mary Nichols, daugh- 
ter of deacon Nichols, of Effingham, N, H., 
where she now lives at the head of a little fam- 
ily, a consistent member of the church to 
which Rev. O. Butler has successfully minis- 
tered the word of life for several 3'ears past. 

About this time the political world was much 
agitated on the question of human rights, and 
as I had been identified with the agitators of 
this question, as a matter of course, I had to 
stand my hand in a share of the obloquy 
thrown upon the men who had brought about 
events which political aspirants claimed would 
result in the ruin of the country. I had advo- 
cated from the early days of my ministry, the 
right of every human being to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness, without respect to 
color, and that one of the channels- of human 
happiness is found in having open to all the 
privilege of being educated to read God's 
Word, and of judging the claims of the divine 
law for themselves ; and that there should be 
no arbitrary enactments standing between hu- 
manity and its rights. I claimed that these 
principles were taught in the Bible, and that, 
as a Christian minister, I was bound to preach 
them and pray for their final triumph And 



108 MEMOIR OF 

that the same principles were found in our bill 
of rights, — the foundation stone on which our 
national structure was built, and therefore hu- 
man chattelism was contrary to our Declara- 
tion of Independence, and, as a citizen of this 
Republic, I was not only at liberty, but it was 
my bounden duty to bear testimony against the 
wrong, and to vote for the right. This I had 
done in connection with Fessendon and others 
of this State, — Phillips, Garrison, and others 
of Mass. I had preached it, prayed it and 
voted it for nearly thirty years in a dead mi- 
nority, foregoing the advantages of political 
preferment when offered me by the political 
parties that ruled the hour. 

Having cherished and advocated these sen- 
timents so long, when the dark war-cloud 
with its muttering thunders was shutting down 
upon the country, I was frequently called to a 
most severe test of the motives that prompted 
the action, and the soundness of those princi- 
ples that laid the foundation for coming strife ; 
but was led to the conclusion that I would not 
change my course for two reasons : I could not 
if I would, I would not if I could. 

So I stood with my brethren in the ministry, 
and preached the same doctrines, fully trust- 
ing in God and public sentiment to sustain us. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. IO9 

War had now commenced, and a number of 
my congregation and some of the members of 
my church enlisted. Brother Timothy Elliott, 
D. J, Meeds, John Libby, one of the sweet 
singers of Israel, and others, soon exchanged 
the pleasures of home and the house of God, 
for the tented field, — the tiresome march, — 
and the thunders of the battle-field. No day 
came and went during their absence but I had 
a heart-felt sense of their perilous condition, 
and was in earnest prayer to God for them, 
their families and friends. 

In my labors as pastor of this church, I had 
the satisfaction of witnessing an increase of the 
congregation till the church was nearly full, 
and a corresponding increase of the Sabbath- 
school, till it numbered about one hundred and 
fifty. This change was brought about by the 
united efforts of pastor and people, and the 
outpouring of the Spirit of God. We were 
blessed with revival influences during the most 
of my pastorate, which lasted nearly four years. 
My labors were incessant ; and the wants of 
my family, and the entertainment of company 
from out of town, our acquaintance being quite 
extensive, and w r e being always glad to see 
our friends, drew heavily on a salary of three 
hundred dollars a year; but by the blessing of 



1IO MEMOIR OF 

God we were enabled to make the two ends of 
the year meet, and generally had something 
to give for benevolence. Up to the time of our 
commencing to build our house, we had given 
for benevolence about fifty dollars a year in 
different ways. Home and Foreign Missions, 
and other benevolent objects we never neglect- 
ed, although my salary had averaged from 
two hundred and fifty to three hundred and 
fifty dollars per year, I have sometimes look- 
ed at the salary of ministers in these days, and 
wished it had been my lot to have received as 
much, for the reason that I could, and I think 
would, have done more for the cause than is 
now being done. But they think and we * 
think, and may the Lord help us to think so- 
berly. 

When the war broke out, as it was known 
that I had been outspoken upon the sins of 
the nation, I was then frequently called upon 
to speak in the public gatherings, and define 
my position on national issues, which I did in 
a manner that called out the approval of the 
one side, and the unqualified disapproval of 
the other, About this time a public meeting 
was called in Saco, at the city hall, and all the 
ministers were called upon to define their posi- 
tion. I was called upon and said : 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. Ill 

I would not hang or harm the Copperheads of the North, 
who were, in my judgment, the aiders and abettors of the 
rebels of the South, and but for the moral support which 
they rendered the slave-holders, the rebellion would soon 
collapse, and the war would come to a close. But if it 
was left to me to pronounce sentence upon them, it should 
be this : I would have them all assembled in the street of 
your city, and I would give the word, and they should 
march between two rows of innocent children, and they 
should make up faces at them ; and then I would send out 
a proclamation throughout all the owl kingdom, and they 
should come and line the fences and the houses and sta- 
bles on each side of the road, till every owl in all the land 
should put in an appearance, and they should hoot at 
them, and if there was an owl that would not hoot, he 
should no longer be counted an owl. And then out far- 
ther, upon the hights and mountains, there should come 
all the snakes of every kind, and they should run out their 
forked tongues and hiss at them ; and I would then march 
them off to the orifice discovered by Syms, at the North 
Pole, and march them in, and they should henceforth peo- 
ple the inside of this earth, and never again appear upon 
its surface to snarl at the progress of liberty. 

This utterance was greeted with prolonged 
shouts, amid which I took my seat. 

At another time I was urged to attend the 
Lyceum at Saco, when that society had under 
discussion the question, " Is it consistent for 
ministers of the gospel to give utterance to po- 
litical sentiments in the pulpit on the Sabbath?" 
I went as a visitor, but was requested to speak 



112 - MEMOIR OF 

in the affirmative ; the speakers consisted of 
two ministers in the affirmative, and two law- 
yers in the negative. One of them, a young 
lawyer, among other things said, "You min- 
isters claim it as a right to speak on politics on 
the Sabbath, and for a pattern you go to the 
Lord's praj^er ; for a pattern minister you go to 
St. Paul, and, I hesitate not to say, that not 
one word of our Lord's prayer can be made to 
allude to politics, either pro or con ; as to Paul, 
not one word of his sayings or writings alludes 
in any way to politics, and you have no war- 
rant for your course in your pattern prayer or 
saint." He resumed his seat with an air of 
triumph, and I was called upon to answer him. 
In doing so I said : 

The speaker claims that our Lord's prayer is our pat- 
tern prayer, and that St. Paul is our pattern minister, 
and to this I agree. He further claims that not one word 
in the prayer alludes either pro or c6n to political ques- 
tions ; in this he and I must disagree, for in that prayer it 
is said, " Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven. ,, Where will wicked politicians 
be when all that shall be brought about? He also says 
that Paul never wrote or said one word about politics. 
Again I find him at fault, and I want him to state to this 
assembly what Paul meant when he wrote to his brethren 
and said, "Let your politeuma be as becomes the gospel of 
Christ." As the gentleman is a scholar, he will do me 
the favor to rise in his place and tell this audience what 
Paul meant by politeuma. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. II3 

He objected, until the chairman decided 
that if I demanded it as a part of my speech, 
he as a gentleman could do no less than 
answer my question, and he then said, "Well, 
-politeuma does mean politics." I then said ; 

All right. You see, Mr. Chairman, the gentleman has 
changed his whole argument himself; he now acknowl- 
edges that our pattern minister did set us the example of 
preaching politics, and I think that this society must so 
vote. 

I was about to sit down, but being urged to 
go on, I said : 

If I say any more, it will be in reference to the assertion 
made by a stump speaker, who said the other day that this 
war must be stopped at any cost ; we must have peace at 
any price. But he says before this is reached, we must 
hang all the d — d ministers. I said, this is the man who 
is for peace at any price. Mr. Chairman, can't, you and 
this audience see that the man's logic is lame ? He pro- 
poses, for peace at any price, to hang all the ministers. 
Can't he see, and don't the people see that this would 
cause the greatest war ever waged in this country? There 
are about four thousand ministers in the New England 
states, and they are all to be hung as a peace offering. How 
many of the gentleman's party will have to be detailed to 
hang us ? Why, it will take twenty men to hang one min- 
ister ; it will to hang me ; and so here are eighty thousand 
of his party to be detailed to hang the four thousand min- 
isters, and what will be the result? Who can contemplate 
the scene without a shudder? The ministers are allowed 



114 MEMOIR OF 

to preach their last sermon, and as they come down and 
out, there is the posse of twenty men at the door, — ten on 
each side. Has it never occurred to the gentleman that 
the members of the church and congregation will fight ? 
The deacons and their wives, and the ministers 1 wives will 
all fight, mine will, I assure you, and the ministers them- 
selves will fight, and such a war as this will be has never 
been seen, and all in the interest of peace. Oh, what log- 
ic ! Why, Mr. President, you take a natural born fool 
and cut him in two, and either end of him will give you 
better logic than this. 

A vote of the club sustained the affirmative, 
and the question was at rest. 

At another time, the citizens of the two cit- 
ies were called together in the public street, in 
front of the Christal Arcade, and it was judged 
that two thousand were present to listen to a 
speech by an ex-senator from Kentucky, who 
was an avowed Republican, and was called 
the southern man with northern principles. It 
was just before the election of General Grant 
to the presidency ; and when he closed, the 
chairman called on me to come forward and 
make some remarks. I saw- no way of escape 
unless I peremptorily declined, and this I was 
not in the habit of doing, and so I stepped to 
the front and remarked : 

If I say anything, I must dissent from some of the senti- 
ments of the gentleman in his able and eloquent speech. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 115 

the most of which I can and do endorse with all my heart. 
But I must dissent from his utterance that Republicans 
had always done right. They did not impeach Andrew 
Johnson, which would have been right, and they ought to 
have done it. [Applause.] I am not here to repudiate 
the party, since in the main it is doing the country good 
service. Peter denied his Master, and I suppose has been 
sorry for it ever since. This one wrong did not hinder 
him from being useful in the church after his repentance. 
But how was it with Judas ? He betrayed his Master, and 
this was a crime of too deep a stain to be washed out. It 
was the culminating point of insult to Deity, and God had 
no further use for him on the earth. When Judas saw 
what he had done, he had common sense enough to bring 
back the money, and then go out and hang himself. I 
wish that all our southern traitors had as much common 
sense as he had. The gallows is the most fitting end of. 
all traitors. 



Amidst an exciting shout I took my seat and 
the meeting dispersed. 

Meeting a company of anti-war men one 
day near the Biddeford House, one of the com- 
pany, apparently a leader, hailed me and said, 
"I thought you ministers taught that being 
smitten on one cheek you should turn the oth- 
er also." "Yes," I said, " that is the doctrine 
we preach in the case of personal difficulties ;. 
and in case such a circumstance should occur 
between you and me, I should have grace 
enough to turn to you the other cheek, if one 



Il6. MEMOIR OF 

was smitten ; but I should advise you not to 
risk it, for I might backslide while turning 
around, and in this case it might be hard for 
you." The reply was greeted with a shout, 
even from his own friends, and my opponent 
walked off. 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. 117 



APPENDIX. 



Elder Stevens was compelled to relinquish the pastorate 
of the church in Biddeford several years ago, on account 
of failing health. He was troubled with a serious difficul- 
ty of the head, which at times seemed bordering on apo- 
plexy. Sometimes he would fall by the way-side or where- 
ever he chanced to be, yet his general health remained 
quite firm, and his mind vigorous to the last. He em- 
ployed his time during the week in farming and garden- 
ing, supplying vacant pulpits on the Sabbath ^as occasion 
called. Besides being held as a reserve by liis own church, 
in the absence of the pastor, all the other denominations 
applied to him for an occasional supply ; and he was al- 
ways welcomed by the congregations. He also supplied 
churches abroad to considerable extent, preaching on the 
Sabbath and attending funerals. Being a favorite among 
the people generally, he was called upon to solemnize 
more marriages than any other three ministers in the city. 
While living in Biddeford, he married four hundred and 
thirty- two couples, and attended nearly twice that number 
of funerals. He actively identified himself with the Y. M. 
C. A., doing much in encouraging them in their noble 
work, often going out with them to their stations outside 
the city, and preaching to the people. In fact, he was a 



Il8 MEMOIR OF 

worker in the great moral field. He loved the work of the 
ministry, and was never happier than when inviting sinners 
to Christ. His ardent desire was that he " might die with 
the gospel harness on." A wish that was gratified, having 
preached for the Y. M. C. A. only the Sabbath previous 
to his death. He also attended to his domestic duties as 
usual, the day prior to his departure to the better land. 

He often had gloomy feelings, and at times was some- 
what dejected at the thoughts of dying. Not that he fear- 
ed anything beyond this life, but the thought of passing 
over the river looked to him dark and chillv, so that he 
seemed to shrink from contemplating the scene. But the 
Saviour whom he had so faithfully served, had in his great 
mercy provided for this last emergency. He was in great 
distress (his disease being dropsy in the chest), but no 
one thought him near his end, when, without a struggle, 
he breathed his last. 

A short time before he died, one asked him how things 
appeared to him, when he replied, * 'Christ is precious. 1 ' 
Some young men called to see him, he beckoned them to 
his bedside, took each by the hand, gave them words of 
advice, and on bidding them good-by, repeated his accus- 
tomed valedictory on parting with friends, "God bless 
you. Be sure and hoe your row and hoe it well." These 
words of parting will be remembered by hundreds. 

As the news spread through the city that this venerable 
man of God had passed the bounds of life, an unusual de- 
gree of sadness seemed to pervade almost every counte- 
nance. People in groups would speak to each other of the 
event, solemnly remarking, "We shall all miss him." 

His funeral was largely attended ; the largest church in 
the city being filled above and below. Business places 
generally were closed that all might pay their last respects 
to one whom they had delighted to honor in life. Twenty- 



REV. JOHN STEVENS. II9 

one ministers of different denominations were present, 
several coming from a distance. After singing, reading- 
select portions of Scripture and prayer, appropriate re- 
marks were made by Revs. Mr. White, the pastor of the 
church, S. Curtis, H. Quinby, I. D. Stewart, J. Mariner, 
and W. C. Barrows. After a very impressive prayer by 
Rev. J. M. Bailey, his remains were conveyed to Laurel 
Hill Cemetery, Saco, for interment. 



IN MEMORIAM. 

BY J. G. HARVEY. 

"Close up the ranks," for the heroes are falling, 
The noble, the gen'rous, the brave and the true, 

Onward ! aye, onward ! life's battle yet rages, 
Up ! up and be active, God's work here to do. 

One has departed, all ripened for glory, 

A "Father in Israel" has passed on before ; 

Welcomed by those who were saved through his labors. 
Greeted by angels on that bright, shining shore. 

A champion for right, a foe to intempVance, 
A friend of the fallen, the poor and the slave, 

He walked with his God, a true, humble Christian, 
He lived as a hero, firm, fearless and brave. 

Gone from us here, to his dear Father's bosom, 
Oh ! who can forget him, the mighty in prayer? 

His fervent "God bless you, my child," doth yet linger, 
A divine benediction with sweetness so rare. 



MEMOIR OF, ETC. 

A warm clasp of the hand, a smile e'er so tender, 

The look which gave comfort, consolation and cheer. 

The song of his heart in holy communion, — 
"My home is in heaven, my rest is not here." 

Dead— yet he speaketh, aye, his work's not completed. 
The body is lifeless, the spirit has gone ; 

But treasured his mem'ry in hearts and affections, 
His deeds and his love will forever live on. 

Portsmouth, N. H. 



